tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1900616754957029867.post6063389581035852184..comments2022-11-01T12:27:55.569+01:00Comments on Alfred Mifsud: Germany's conondrumUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1900616754957029867.post-48916890082486683152013-09-01T11:08:28.591+02:002013-09-01T11:08:28.591+02:00If Germany were being disdvantaged by the Euro cri...If Germany were being disdvantaged by the Euro crisis they would have either decided to leave the Euro ( much easier for a surplus country to leave than it is for a deficit country) or else woul have tken measure to really solve the crisis by a fair burden sharing programme to recover equilibrium among the euro area members.<br /><br />For more deatield analysis see 'how to save the Euro' in the top line of this pageAlfred Mifsudnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1900616754957029867.post-85593525148354512522013-08-31T15:12:22.391+02:002013-08-31T15:12:22.391+02:00"The Deutsche Mark would have sky rocketed on..."The Deutsche Mark would have sky rocketed on the foreign exchange markets and would have acted as a self-correcting mechanism to neutralise Germany’s increased competitiveness and accumulating surpluses. With the euro, the German export machine does not face any headwind from the exchange rate mechanisms." ... and so Germany has benifited HOW from the Euro crisis? Our "benifit" is no increase in living standards since 1995 (since the Euro's annoucement) precisely because the Euro has not appreciated as the DM would have. The undervalued EUR for Germany is not a benefit to Germany, it only benefits some owners of Export businesses. Overall, Germany has lossed deeply due to the Euro crisis: 1) low euro exchange rate making us poorer vis-a-vis ROW. 2) high losses in what was thought to be safe irish or spanish banking debt or italian sovereign debt 3) soon to come write downs of bail-out funds 4) etc.. and the argument that Germany profited from the crisis through lower borrowing cost doesn't count either: Germany is a net international creditor, so the lower interest on german bunds does not mean foreigners are giving Germany near-zero interest loans, but that German pension and insurance funds are lending at near-zero interest to the German government... i.e. the government's gain is the people's loss.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com