Germany must do more to help its neighbors

The Washington Post Editorial Board, Apr 27, 2013

SOUTHERN EUROPE’S economic depression deepens. In Spain, 6.2 million people — a record 27 percent of the labor force — can’t find a job. Greece’s unemployment rate is even higher, 27.2 percent; in Italy, it’s 11.6 percent. For young people, the jobless rates are double or, in the case of Italy, triple that. Clearly, economic growth is urgently needed, lest a generation of Europeans be forced either to emigrate or to waste their prime earning years — to say nothing of a prolonged slump’s implications for democracy and political stability.

Yet in a recent visit to Washington, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose government pretty much calls the shots in Europe, defended the current policy — which he described as “force member states, oblige member states, to stick to European rules, to reduce deficits in a, of course, balanced way, to enhance their competitiveness by structural reforms,” until “European mechanisms” buy enough time for them to regain access to financial markets. Mr. Schaeuble added, in words that must chill the heart of every young job-seeker from Bilbao to the Balkans, “No one should expect that Europe will deliver high growth rates in the coming years.”….To Read More….

My Take - So Germany "must" do more to help its neighbors.  To do what?  The people who wrote this article blame Germany for being too good and Greece, Italy, Spain for not being good enough.  Therefore Germany must stop doing such a good job and even buy products from these countries even if they are overpriced.   So it’s really all Germany’s fault they can’t restructure…..is that their answer?

Why in the world would they want to do that?  Do they really believe this will stop the insane spending programs that are already out of control in these countries?   The inevitable is coming to these countries, bankruptcy!  The EU is going to cease to exist because these countries are incapable of rational thought when it comes to fiscal management for their nations and they have placed far too much power in the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats with and agenda making insane rules beloved by every anti-capitalist leftist in Europe.   

Furthermore, their citizens are so imbued with socialism that they believe they can force their governments to continue heaping benefits on them, even if they don't have the money, forever.   I wonder if the writers of this article would think it would be just dandy if a really great soccer team, that beats everyone hands down, deliberately played less well in order for less talented or less dedicated teams to look better?  

What we need is clarity.  Everyone...including Americans and the U.S. government…. need to understand that out of control spending leads to disaster.  That must be first on the list.  Fix that and everything else will fall into place much more easily.  As for Germany....they "must" look to their own economy because southern Europe is doomed.