Stop Bullying Germany for Being Too Successful

There was no choice, of course, because if the euro boat was heading for an iceberg, it would affect all decks, not just third class down below.

But funnily enough, Greece, Portugal, and particularly Ireland, did not say "thank you very much" for being given blanket credit guarantees and access to funding at a lower cost. They proceeded to complain about the nasty Germans, because the nasty Germans demand what any banker would: that the indebted customers get his finances in order. At any cost. Sadly, the cost has to be borne by tax payers of the countries in question.

In Germany as well. The productive, efficient, not-overspending Germans have to pick up the tab for their less efficient neighbors. But ultimately there is no other way than austerity. You can't spend yourself out of a debt crisis (a plain and simple truth for the US as well, by the way).

Here's another truth: The euro was a quid pro quo for German unification. It's an open secret that the Germans (or, then Chancellor Helmut Kohl) "bought" the euro and sold their much beloved deutschmark in order to get France to agree to German unification.

Even at the start, it was very much a multi-speed euro zone, comprised of the old deutschmark bloc (the Benelux countries, Austria and - at a stretch - France) and the shaky soft-currency group with Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Arguably it would have made a lot more sense to start the euro just with the old deutschmark-pegged currencies. But that was politically far too unambitious - and far too sensible. When are politicians ever sensible?

So what is happening now was practically pre-programmed. The Germans should be used to it. As a federation that is combined of a number of states (Laender) with very different financial and economic characteristics, the Federal Republic of Germany has a system of regional transfers of tax funds. Under this system, the "rich" German states support the weaker ones.

It is a simple question of solidarity. The system has never been seriously questioned. And it has also been successful. Whereas the old inustrial stronghold, the steel and mining belt in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia had to share its tax wealth with the structually weak southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg for decades, the South, with its BMWs and Porsches, has started supporting the North.

Success or failure of the euro should be determined on the basis of a timescale that compares with Germany's evolution. Fifty years, rather than 15.

As for "blaming the Germans" for the trials and tribulations of our less affluent euro peers: blame the Germans for having traded their deutschmark for the euro, but don't blame them for being too successful.

And as for the US, don't be sanctimonious and patronizing! The spendthrift Greeks, Portuguese and Irish spent much of their euros on Beamers, Porsches and Mercs. And let's face it: Just like North-Rhine Westphalia had to support Baden-Wuerttemberg for a generation or two, Germany will have to support Portugal or Greece or Ireland, hoping that one fine day this solidarity will pay - just like it paid for North-Rhine Westphalia.