Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
For the first time in my life, I am starting to feel twinges of anti-German sentiment, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
Even Teutophiles who think that Germany has played an enlightened role for 60 years are losing patience with the antics of the finance ministry and Bundesbank, and with the dictatorial turn in Berlin's EU strategy.
Put bluntly, Germany is pursuing a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. It is not fulfilling its responsibilities as the world's top exporter and pivotal power of Europe's monetary union.
In pre-euro days the North-South rift did not matter. The D-Mark revalued. Balance was restored. In monetary union it is toxic. Germany is in breach of EMU's implicit contract.
Worst of all is Germany's nefast role in dredging up the Lisbon Treaty after it had been rejected by French and Dutch voters. Having made one blunder, they are now making another by refusing to accept the Irish verdict as well.
Why are they so maniacal about this? Because the treaty establishes German primacy in the EU's voting structure. This is raw national interest – camouflaged, of course.
What if the Irish vote 'No' again? Will Germany carry out its threat to "suspend" them from the EU, and thereby risk a final revulsion against Europe and the unravelling of the post-War order?
One notes that Germany has acquired the taste for bullying small nations.
Steinbrück threatened to "take a whip" to Switzerland. The sooner Germans take a whip to Mr Steinbrück and all he stands for, the better. Otherwise the rest of us will have to start examining our options.
Hers is the true voice of German opinion, whatever the declarations of European unity may suggest to the contrary.
As we can see from the very public arguments between Britain and Germany, central banks do not always see recession in the same light.
Last week a summit meeting of the European Union was held in Brussels. As one would expect, the communiqué after the meeting reflected apparent unanimity, but the unanimity was not real.
The immediate question focuses on the Anglo-German argument. How can the recession of 2008 be brought most rapidly to an end?
Can it be ended by bigger debts or by a return to stable finance on the German model?
...Good riddance! (Cartoon)
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