… THAT GERMANY IS NOT THE HEGEMON.
The terrible war between Sparta and Athens which destroyed Greece, started because Sparta wanted to be seen as the hegemon of Greece. Whereas, truly, all indicators were that Athens was the rising hegemon.
And the reasons for this were deep: the racist, fascist exploitative model of Sparta, far from being a leader, was going down, whereas Athens, whom Pericles described as an “Open Society“, was going up. Athens is the leader (hegemon) that we are following today.
Smart people learn from history, and France, in particular, has long pondered Athens’ fate.
Balancing a budget is worthy, as long as there are not excellent reasons to make it unbalanced.
A military situation is an excellent reason for unbalancing the budget of a state. The USA generated a massive deficit in World War Two. So did Britain, or France.
Hegemon Celebrates In Style Victory Over Germany In The Case Of Greece, July 14, 2015
The USA deficit was from credit extended by the USA, to the USA. In other words it was convertible into a tax. The debt could be extinguished by taxation. And that is exactly what FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower did (tax rates were hiked up as high as 93% under Ike).
The British or French debts were credited by the USA, and that meant a sort of slavery, looking forward, as happened. France has seriously recovered. In August 1914, 38 million Frenchmen were invaded by 122 million German speakers. Now there are significantly more young Frenchmen, than young Germans.
Right now, the French Republic’s army is making war, or containing organized outlaws on several continents (South America, Africa, and Eurasia) and many countries. The French government does not have the money to do so. Thus the French government ought to keep its budget unbalanced. The French imbalance is targetted at 4.5% of GDP (in violation of Euro regulations by 50%).
British budgetary imbalance is only at 3.7%. The price Britain pays for this better budgetary balance, is to play now only a puny military role… relative to France. France does not like that, her only serious ally being now, once again, the USA. Same old same old, just as in the 1780s…
Germany has a primary budget imbalance of zero percent. Which may look balanced, but is not, because it’s mentally imbalanced to count cents, while Europe burns.
A republic which does not defend its values is not a Republic.
Balancing a budget can kill an economy: the Greek GDP is somewhat down 30% from its peak. However Greece has a primary budget excedent: that means that the Greek government spends less than it receives in taxes, fees, etc. The reason for the Greek overall current account deficit is payment of interest to (world government’s) institutions such as the ECB, the ironically denominated European Stability Fund, the IMF, etc.
The French government knows all of this, and is, truly, the real hegemon of Europe. So when the French president drew the line, Germans, most of them against keeping Greece is the Eurozone, according to polls, had to capitulate.
Another 85 billion Euros is going Greece’s way. Dr. Merkel, in the end did the reasonable thing, what the French government told her to do (and she overruled her hawkish, asnd somewhat deranged finance minister).
However, the Germans are angry. Very angry. The New York Times ponder “Germany’s Destructive Anger“.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/opinion/germanys-destructive-anger.html
The author, Jacob Soll, an American, played a role in Greek debt drama (rumors are that the debt may have been overestimated). Says he: “German anger, and we know they are angry. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was reported to have started yelling during Saturday night’s negotiations. France and Italy have both made huge loans to Greece, but neither country has expressed hostility to Greece. Why is Germany so angry?
As an economic historian, I got a taste of this resentment…”
Indeed why are the Germans so angry? Because they are resentful. About what? Nietzsche was so intrigued by German Resentment, that some view him, first, as the philosopher of resentment.
How did Germans got so crazy, once again?
Mr. Soll, a professor of history and accounting at the University of Southern California, is the author of “The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations.” He concludes: “German attendees circled me to explain how the Greeks were robbing the Germans. They did not want to be victims anymore. While I certainly accepted their economic points and, indeed, the point that European Union member countries owe Germany so much money that more defaults could sink Germany, it was hard, in Munich at least, to see the Germans as true victims.
Here lies a major cultural disconnect, and also a risk for the Germans. For it seems that their sense of victimization has made them lose their cool, both in negotiations and in their economic assessments. If the Germans are going to lead Europe, they can’t do it as victims.”
Krugman makes similar observations in “Angry Germans“.
Says Paul: “Germany’s sense of victimization does seem real, and is a big problem for its neighbors.”
Germany’s sense of victimization is how it got to hate the French, the Slavs, and the Jews. Just read Hitler’s Mein Kampf: it starts with Germany victimized by the French, then smoothly transit to it being victimized by the Jews…
Why so angry?
Because the truth is out: Germany is not the hegemon of Europe. It tried, once again, and completely failed. Once again. The French Republic stood in the way, gathered around her a more powerful coalition than Germany, in the Eurozone itself, and then added the IMF.
The IMF made first a 180 degree turn: it has concluded that the Greek debt, as it is, is completely unsustainable, and should be cut drastically (Tsipras proposed 30%, I propose 50%). All serious students of debt agree. And Germany used that trick several times in the last 150 years.
Meanwhile, the USA had rallied the French position. The USA has created for its economy 13 times more money than the Eurozone.
France won. France won even Merkel.
France is the hegemon of Europe, Germany the moribund. Because, assuredly, only the mentally moribund would strike such a stupid position about Greece with so much obstinacy, absent any capacity for reason and introspection.
Patrice Ayme’
Tags: Anger, Germany, Greece, Hegemon, Nietzsche, Resentment
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 
July 16, 2015 at 1:14 am |
Germans don’t do introspection well.
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July 16, 2015 at 1:14 pm |
No, they obviously did not learn. But this time the French lost none cracking down on German madness.
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July 17, 2015 at 11:05 am |
I think that’s true of all of Northern Europe.
With Germany, I think there may be some deep down cognitive dissonance that stirs up their anger. One of the comments on Krugmans small piece about spiteful posts he’s receiving from German’s sums it up. Germans publicly espouse the “stern father” ideal, but deep down, they sometimes would like to relax and play in the sun just like those “lazy southerners”. So their public face is hard working, effiecient, but deep down this exerts an emotional toll on them. It’s not coincidence that Nazism emerged in Germany, or that they committed the first genocide of the 20th century in German West Africa. Erich Fromm has interesting ideas on the German psyche and the resulting world wars it caused. Maybe the echoes remain?
I have occasional trips to Germany as a result of my work, I find it an interesting place, in many ways the Germans and British are similar. We also have this contrast between showing off how hard working and serious we are, but in the UK the powerful are also frequently caught, literally, “with their trousers down”.
A few things I’ve noticed that illustrate the dissonance between a people who put so much face on hard working efficiency and the reality of the human condition in that we are not machines designed to work like machines. They do not work particularly long hours. Compared to the UK and US, it seems acceptable in Germany to take time off sick for anything at all. If they have a sniffle, doctors will happily sign them off for a week, where this would be acceptable to nobody in the UK.
Then they have this right to take state funded breaks in “health” spas every few year. I was told that the state is clamping down on it, but it sounded like the biggest pseudo-health scam ever. I was shocked to find that people were having a couple of weeks off work, frolicking in swimming pools at state expense and that this was a legal right of the employees.
It was such a contrast to the image that they like to project and shows that at root, just like our plutocrats in the UK, when it comes to “hard work”, they are hypocrites who “talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk”.
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July 17, 2015 at 11:08 am |
I was wrong to write “German psyche..”, more specifically, I meant “German social value system”. The German psyche is the same as all other humans, it is their social system that differs!
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July 17, 2015 at 11:43 am |
I have known for more than two decades a blonde German doctor who is on 100% disability. I could never find any appearance of disabled behavior, yet supposedly her back prevents her from working. In the USA I knew a senior doctor who was clearly disabled, with a nearly ridiculous limp. He worked full time (although he lived in a mini mansion, and had plenty of wealth in stocks). He did so for more than 20 years.
My blonde German friend has been travelling around the world since as old as I have known her. She has a preference for the USA and Italy.
That Germany is doing great nowadays is clear. Many cynics have pointed out that it is because of the Euro (which, ironically, has impacted France negatively, although a French creature…)
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July 16, 2015 at 7:35 am |
French faggot
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July 16, 2015 at 1:13 pm |
Comments which consist only of insults will be removed in the future. I think aggressivity can be very productive, but it has to be justified. Agreed, I understand you found no reason for your anger which you can elaborate on, just like the Germans the essay was about.
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July 16, 2015 at 4:51 pm |
Il parait que les Français respectent les Allemands, mais ne les aiment pas, tandis que les Allemands aiment les Français, mais ne les respectent pas. Peut-être. Personnellement, j’aime beaucoup les Allemands, ou en tous cas l’image que j’en ai, mais je ne les respecte pas. Et je suis toujours surpris (“toujours” comme dans “tous les jours ou presque”, sur internet) par cette réputation Allemande, construite après-guerre par les vainqueurs, de virilité guerrière, de succès, de rigueur, etc, etc…, sorte de miroir flatteur dans lequel les Anglos se regardent depuis 70 ans… disons qu’admettre avoir eu toutes les peines du monde à faire face aux “rebuts” à l’Ouest, et ce avec tous les avantages possibles, pendant que les soviets se coltinaient les “vrais” à l’Est, et l’emportaient parce qu’ils étaient tout simplement meilleurs…
Enfin, bref, pour moi, et ce n’est qu’un préjugé, les Allemands, s’il fallait leur trouver un stéréotype adéquat, sont des “serial losers” nés, qui réussissent toujours à foirer ce qu’ils devraient de prime abord réussir à ne pas foirer – de façon amusante, c’est AMHA comme cela que les Anglos, et donc la culture globale, perçoivent la France et les Français, mais bon…
Indravaruna est simplement dans cet esprit, comme ces cons de neo-nazis Français, qui bandent pour la SS et consorts pour de mauvaises raisons, alors que même du côté “fierté blanche”, il y a 100x mieux dans l’histoire Française. Le marketing, ça marche, merci à tous les gens qui vivent de la rente “1939-1945”, l’Allemagne leur est redevable.
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July 16, 2015 at 6:30 pm |
The fact is, Hitler himself said the French were the world’s best soldiers (just behind the SS). After general Koenig’s 3,000 men (or so) stopped both the Afrika Korps and the elite of the Italian army and armor, at Bir Hakiem.
France won both WWI and WWII. That’s the bottom line. And France used to be small relative to Germany, but now no more. Let alone France controls as exclusive economic zone, around 11 million square kilometers, more than 25 times the area Germany controls….
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July 16, 2015 at 1:04 pm |
France is an over-taxed, over-regulated and bureaucratic nightmare with a ludicrously top-heavy civil service and the massive dead weight of statist presence and interference. It also has an ossified political elite that is incapable of bringing the reform the country needs.
No wonder the French government shares a fellow-feeling with Greece; they have many similarities, though of course France is much better at tax collection.
I wish both France and Greece well, but it is time to stop contributing OUR money to these failing states, both living beyond their means (and indeed living beyond OUR means).
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July 16, 2015 at 1:06 pm |
I agree quite a bit with the first paragraph. Also, somewhat, the second. However, France is certainly not a failing state. The entire defense of the West right now, mostly rests with the USA and France. In that, most important sense, the other states are failing.
Moreover, the French state system supports a research establishment of great importance, and the university system with the best quality/price quotient in the world. Fundamental research discoveries made in France during the last century have changed this world for the best, and are second to none.
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July 16, 2015 at 1:11 pm |
Germany contributes 21 billions to EC budget, France 19 billions. Great Britain, a cheater country, only 12 billions, less than Italy (14). Time for the Brits to pay, or ship out to their masters in Wall Street.
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July 16, 2015 at 4:33 pm |
“I wish both France and Greece well, but it is time to stop contributing OUR money to these failing states, both living beyond their means (and indeed living beyond OUR means).”
And here we go again.
Let’s face it. It’s not about money. It’s not about France (and other ‘dark skinned’ wogs, but France, foremost, still) freeloading off the virtuous “Northern Europe”, as the lazy Southerners are wont to do, just as the famine-stricken Irish before them…
No, it’s deeper than that. It’s having to SHARE, to MINGLE, to LIVE with the rest of them. It’s being forced WITH them. It’s a rape, it’s a rape of your insularity. It’s why you always are but an innocent, well-meaning victim of such outsiders, robbing you of what is yours, through their malevolence, tainting you. It’s not even just racism, and the “francophobia” of the Anglo world is racism, not friendly banter or historical rivalry… it is the supremacism at the very heart of what “Anglo-saxonia” really is, that France and the others (but France, foremost), is constantly wounding, just by being there.
As a person, IE, you, Chris, I don’t know, you certainly are a balanced, nice fellow and all, no doubt, you are an educator IIRC, a granddad…
But as a civilization, collectively, you do not need anything less than some kind of mass psychotherapy, really, from the top (your all-too tainted by paedophilia, homosexuality, sadism,… or, in a word : predatory Elites), to the bottom (your population all too happy to be the “bottom”, as per gay slang, of your Elites).
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July 16, 2015 at 6:24 pm |
Pretty much in agreement. Britain’s success, to a great extent was by selling itself to the Rothschilds and the like (Rothschilds themselves said, explicitly, around 1830 CE). Britain, anyway is not a Republic, but, more than symbolically at least, a plutocracy.
The funny thing about the Cameron referendum, is that there is a high likelihood it will turn against Britain. Big time. Meanwhile, Greece has been a welcome distraction: Cameron has lost precious weeks to get a negotiation started. French and German elections are coming, by 2017, and the closer they are the less negotiating.
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July 16, 2015 at 5:39 pm |
“France is an over-taxed, over-regulated and bureaucratic nightmare with a ludicrously top-heavy civil service and the massive dead weight of statist presence and interference. It also has an ossified political elite that is incapable of bringing the reform the country needs.”
If it works towards United Nations of Europe, taxes can be greatly reduced, being unnecessary for a monetarily sovereign country ( all Europe) except for the uber wealthy (the top 0.1%) in the interest of income equality.
Rösler’s crowing aside, the Germany is building on the flesh and blood of its neighbors and its citizens. In a brilliant campaign, reminiscent of the American .1% income group’s campaign to impoverish the U.S. middle- and lower classes, Germany has convinced the world its success is based on “budget consolidation” and “solid finances.”
A growing Gross Domestic Product requires a growing supply of money. In the case of Monetarily Sovereign nations, like the U.S., Canada, China, Australia et al, that money can be created ad hoc by their sovereign governments.
But for monetarily non-sovereign nations, which have no sovereign currency and so the total supply cannot be increased, each nation must try to steal euros from the others, in a nationalistic riot of mutual cannibalism.
When the other euro nations finally surrender to the eventuality that they either return to Monetary Sovereignty and re-adopt their own currency, or merge into a financial version of a United States of Europe, Germany will run out of blood donors.
At that point, German citizens will begin to suffer so much they will seek out a strong, ruthless leader, who will identify and persecute scapegoats, then renounce the euro, so as to finance a war, just like the one Hitler did.
During the chaos, the German uber-reich will feed off the dying German populace, as salaries are diverted to taxes and the focus turns to saving the government. Soon there will be but two classes: The very wealthy and the very poor. The gap will be complete.”
From Mitchell, predicted two years ago, in
http://mythfighter.com/2013/03/13/germany-eat-our-neighbors-then-kill-our-citizens-wwii-revisit
It is best to make up Greece’s debt and think of becoming like USA, a UNE for United Nations of Europe, and establish a European Central Bank to finance all Europe and create euros under federal control. Get rid of all private banks. prosperity will follow promptly.
Partha
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July 16, 2015 at 6:50 pm |
Dear Partha: I agree with the comparison between the USA’s .1% and present day Germany.
I do not agree that Germany can try the Bismarck/Kaiser/Hitler trick again. It’s over. Not only the mood has changed. Militarily, Germany is, at best, third rate. Even the German superiority planes, the Typhoons/Eurofighter are made by (French controlled) Airbus (and are much less good than the pure French Rafale).
German demographics is also bad relative to France (no immigration) and Britain (lots of chosen immigration). So Germany is sort of going on demographically though injection of non-German stock (changing the mentality). In France, descendants of non-French are already in command (example Sarkozy, Belkassem, a giant panoply of African born politicians or thinkers, all the way to Derida, and the last two mayors of Paris, etc.). They are just as French as the French.
The French conspiracy about the Euro was to force more unification, using it. As just happened. Germany had to submit, and will fork over many billions (it had to submit with the Banking Union too!)
The Euro is a creation of the hegemon, France, and Germany has to submit, as simple as that.
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July 16, 2015 at 8:39 pm |
Hi patrice:
Perhaps the French should take the lead and make UNE, a reality!
Partha
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July 16, 2015 at 9:44 pm
The EU was created mostly by French thinkers and statemen (Robert Schumann, Jean Monnet, etc…). The Euro was conceived as a Trojan Horse towards greater union. The French imposed it to Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor (as president Mitterrand was secretly financing Kohl, he could not say no! ;-))
In the crisis since 2008, a Banking Union was created (despite tremendous GERMAN resistance), and the ECB’s powers extended (German constitutional judges barely let it pass). So it’s working.
German rage was noticed by Americans, and others recently. All it means is that France is the hegemon. (The leader, endowed with greater prestige.)
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July 17, 2015 at 11:17 am |
“I wish both France and Greece well, but it is time to stop contributing OUR money to these failing states”
Whose money? Where does this money come from? Only government and banks can make it, so it is theirs, not ours. All “our” money is borrowed too.
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July 17, 2015 at 12:06 pm |
Agreed 100%. Yet the 99%, including our dear Chris, do not understand that. Thus they can be exploited!
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July 16, 2015 at 6:35 pm |
“Armaments and Industry Minister Albert Speer bluntly told Hitler that he would never win the war without some French industrial help, so he had to allow the revival of French industry. That enraged Hitler to high heavens… But Adolf himself had to agree that Speer was right. After the defeat of the Afrika Korps at Bir Hakeim in 1942 by a French army, in a modern version of Thermopylae, that was a particularly bitter pill to swallow. After the Axis disaster at Bir Hakiem, Hitler had explained to its cabinet that, once again, there was a proof that the French were the best soldiers, and so France was very dangerous, and thus had to be annihilated. (See Note.)
Speer won the argument. Later Hitler sent his most fanatical Nazi general to destroy Paris, but, instead, the general, known as the “Butcher of Sevastopol”, negotiated an armistice with the French resistance, and surrendered to the famous French Second Armored division. World War Two proved to thoughtful French and Germans that fighting each other was not just hopeless, but self defeating. Nor was staying apart a valid proposition either. As a further look back deep in history shows…”
From:
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July 16, 2015 at 8:37 pm |
I am just fed up with the pontificating and useless political class which cannot reform anything. Also, the situation at Calais is a total disgrace. The army and navy should be brought in to ship all those people back to Africa. Let them all get on a ferry and then sail it to Tangiers or wherever. Our drivers are being menaced, millions of GBP of goods are being lost, there are 50km queues on either side of the Channel. It is a shambles. And Hollande has just committed France to paying more billions HE HAS NOT GOT to bail out Greece, which should not be IN the euro.
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July 16, 2015 at 9:38 pm |
About Calais a question is why is Great Britain such a magnet for illegal workers? A carefully organized lack of documentation joined to a will-to-enslavement?
A Calais like situation developed in Vintimille, on the Franco-Italian state line. As far as money is concerned, as Partha, the Indian economist pointed out many times, and so did I, the number two prerogative of a state is to create enough money to operate its economy. The number one prerogative is the ability to defend itself. The latter, number one definition of a state, only Britain, increasingly marginally, and France, have. That defewnse capability is related to the situation in Calais, or illegal immigration to mostly Italy and GREECE. The problem in GREECE has little to do with the Euro, and everything to do with banksters.
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July 17, 2015 at 12:25 am |
What has Britain being a magnet got to do with EU open borders and the total incompetence of the French authorities? Maybe England is a nicer place. We should obviously be a lot nastier.
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July 17, 2015 at 12:31 am |
Illegal workers know they can work in Britain, whereas they cannot in most of Schengen. So it seems to be a British documentation problem, fundamentally. And also a way-too-low minimum wage problem. Maybe that is why Osborne just proposed to raise the minimum wage closer to the French one (to The Economist’s fury, as TE proclaimed it would turn Britain into France)
As far as been way too nice, that’s a global European problem. A military crack-down by Europe on Islamists, Putin, and roguish regimes in the neighborhood, is long overdue. A philosophical crack-down on those who promote anti-European values (such as Fundamentalist Islam, or Banksterism, or Plutocracy) is also long overdue.
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July 17, 2015 at 11:24 am |
“About Calais a question is why is Great Britain such a magnet for illegal workers?”
Possibly because we have enough small scale employers with a limitless desire for the cheapest, most compliant workers possible.
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July 17, 2015 at 11:47 am |
Indeed. They could not be employed in France or Germany, as it is illegal, and, considering the enormous minimum wage in both places, no employer will be found to employ illegally an ignorant.
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July 17, 2015 at 11:19 am |
“We should obviously be a lot nastier.”
Looking at the current Tory government, your wish will be granted.
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July 17, 2015 at 5:15 pm |
Truly amazing that Germans don’t seem to learn. It’s of little consequence now, as you said. German MPS approved the deal with Greece, 4 to 1…
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July 18, 2015 at 9:19 pm |
Much ado about nothing, thanks to France’s firmness.
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July 18, 2015 at 8:35 am |
[Sent to Ben Bernanke’s and Krugman Blogs, July 17, 2015.]
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the world’s number one solution to the present ills which affect it socially and economically, is to grab back a significant amount of capital and rent from conniving plutocrats. The smoothest way to accomplish this is to dilute the capital they hold by providing more liquidity.
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July 19, 2015 at 8:41 pm |
‘Why so angry?
Because the truth is out: Germany is not the hegemon of Europe. It tried, once again, and completely failed’
Interesting theory but far too ‘American’. ‘Americans firstly always like to think in these funny power or money dimensions – and I know that because I’m a American – with Germans it’s a lot more complicated and right now they gladly would give anybody on the world any type of silly ‘hegemon’ just NOT to be botehered by this crazy Greece problem anymore – and I know that because I’m German – and if I wouldn’t have some friends and relatives in Greece I probably would think the same way…
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July 19, 2015 at 8:59 pm |
Welcome pieceofcake, I read your comments all the time in the New York Times (where you are “trusted”, and I am not).
Europe does not have enough money in circulation, as I explained. Germany does not see this, with its 7.5% budgetary excess, which is, by itself, a sin. It means Germany depends upon selling its goods overseas, in excess. They sell, but don’t reciprocate. The entire world could not be run like that. The puny Greek problem is just a symptom of a deep cancer.
The USA is more socialist than Europe, as far as money is concerned.
The German military is deeply dysfunctional, and spends significantly less than Britain, and, a fortiori, France. 1.3% GDP for Germany, 2% for France. NATO requires 2%, and Germany signed on this. Yes, Greece spends 4.5% of GDP, and that’s excessive… But the problems in Greece cannot be used to hide those in Germany…
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July 19, 2015 at 9:14 pm |
‘But the problems in Greece cannot be used to hide those in Germany…’
That’s the next misunderstanding – nobody in Germany uses Greece’s problem to hide the German ones – and if you would be familiar with Germany you would know – that there is hardly another people who love to point to their own problems – they actaully love it – all this pulling out their own hair and predicting any day that the German economy is going to fail as IT is too dependend on exports. – and as the American I am – I say: Enjoy the party as long as it lasts – and if there are enough idiots in the world who keep on buying overpriced stuff it’s their fault – Right.
-(and I think the other things you mentioned had very little to do with what we originally discussed?)
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July 19, 2015 at 9:28 pm |
Eurozone needs much more money going to the periphery, that, and only that, will correct the German massive excedent of 7.5%. They are not having a party with the Greece situation, which they contributed to, nearly as much, if not more, than the Greeks (over-valuation Drachma by 100%; German banks subsidiaries failing in Greece after Pluto loans.)
As I explained a zillion times the USA created 13 times more money than the ECB since 2008. (Something similar with Bank of England: much money created.)
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July 19, 2015 at 9:49 pm |
”As I explained a zillion times the USA created 13 times more money than the ECB since 2008′
So what? – but perhaps there you got the decisive difference between me as an American – and me as a German –
While Americans were busy creating money – Germans were busy creating jobs not suprising mostla for themselves as the Us and a lot of other Euopeans thought there was more money in money cration and not anymore in manufacturing – and they got a surprise when they gave up their manufacturing – with Germany now doing most of the quality stuff – and the ‘party’ was mentioned concerning that fact and not the Greek Crisis.
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July 20, 2015 at 6:07 am |
Germany was right to not give on manufacturing. However, the most advanced German manufacturing is arguably not as advanced as manufacturing in the USA (chips) or even France (aircraft, rockets). It makes it vulnerable to China.
Germany’s crime has been to behave like an hegemon in money creation, instead of just an hegemon in advanced manufacturing as, say, California (Apple, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Ebay, Space X, Tesla, etc.). California does not prevent Greater Miami to have enough money to function. But Germany prevents Greece (and ALL SOUTH EUROPE, including FRANCE) to have enough money to function. (Greater Miami and Greece have same size economies).
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July 24, 2015 at 7:22 pm |
[Sent to Eugen.]
How did the dialogue with Hubert arise? I agree with him. Right now the Greek state was forced to run a primary surplus. The German 7.5% current account imbalance is wacko, in violation of European rules, etc.
We searched for the miscreants, and their names were Germans, not Greeks.
Another proof? The discrepancy in position was slight, still the Germans wanted to throw Greece out of Europe. Thus they showed their hand, the hand of anger. Anger at losing their destiny and future.
Germany is definitively getting de-hegemonized…. And Germans vaguely perceive their on-going de-hegemonization. The superpower of Europe is, increasingly France (especially with Britain threatened by madness and disintegration, navel gazing
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July 27, 2015 at 12:30 pm |
[Sent to The Conversation, July 27.]
The myth is always entertained that Germany is the biggest, baddest, most significant, etc. But a look at the numbers show France is not far behind (even in EU contribution, or in how much Greece owes to the state).
In the latest crisis, it’s France, not Germany, which led and got her way.
Another point is that, in the latest crisis, the parties were not far apart. The extraordinary insistence, on the part of all to many Germans, to throw Greece out of the EMU (European Monetary Union), and, thus, out of the EU, was absolutely NOT proportional to the problem. It was an exhibition of Teutonic and titanic anger. Greece has actually a primary account surplus, even more than Germany does. It’s interest payments which bring Greece under.
And how did the Greek debt problem start? Because of the failure, in Greece, of German and French bank subsidiaries. The Greek state had to step in. The French remember this, and, thus, act with more consideration. The German lack of consideration is scathing, and evokes very bad memories regarding the accusation, by the Germans, of other people and nations. It’s a repeat of an age-old pattern.
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