The newly elected French Socialist president, Francois Hollande, is warning Germany that Mediterranean ideas of “growth,” not Germanic “austerity,” should be the new European creed. No surprise there - reckless debtors often blame their own past imprudence on greedy creditors, especially if the latter are supposed to be guilt-ridden over causing two world wars.
All over Europe, the gospel is that tight-fisted Germans are at the root of the European Union meltdown: They worked too hard, saved too much, bought too little and borrowed not at all. All that may be true, in theory. But, in fact, faulting thrift and industry is a prescription for incurring anger and guaranteeing backlash - especially in the case of the Germans, who are now asked to provide even more capital to help other European economies to recover.
After World War II, the allies swore that they had at last come up with a novel tripartite solution: Germany would be split apart. West Germany was to be a member of both NATO and, eventually, the new European Union. France, Great Britain and the United States would be nuclear powers, but not so Germany, where nuclear physics and rocketry were born.
History is quietly whispering to us in our age of amnesia: “I would not keep poking the Germans unless you are able to deal with them when they wake up.”
HANSON: Let sleeping Germans lie - Washington Times



4Likes

LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks



Reply With Quote


Bookmarks