The Money Is Gone, the War Is Over: A monetary war has been fought in the Eurozone and Greece has lost.
Greek opinions about Germans are changing. When “austerity measures” were first imposed, Greek newspapers and posters infamously depicted Chancellor Merkel as a Nazi leader. But the reaction has lately become more sophisticated: now we hear that Germans want to pursue a strict interpretation of Protestant ethics (which knows no redemption on earth) and punish the Greek people.
But when you ask Germans, they don’t feel like they’re punishing Greece. Instead, the German version of the story is that the beautiful Mediterranean country has been afforded plenty of chances to reform itself. Moreover, Germans argue, the original sin lies with the Greeks as well: Athens keenly insisted on entering the Euro and used a bit of accounting magic to meet requirements. If the country fails, it’s certainly not Germany’s fault.
Reconciliation between those two positions seems impossible - as is true in most cases when somebody owes money to somebody else and the latter cannot pay.
But to overcome this precarious situation, we ought to distinguish between moralism and pragmatism. Let’s go for the moral argument first: there are a few facts that we should recognize. Yes, the Euro was a poorly planned endeavor. The idea that Greece and Germany could become part of the same monetary and economic zone was crazy. Yes, fifteen years ago it was cool to be inside the Eurozone, and if you weren’t, you were either a loner (Switzerland), controlled a lot of oil money (Norway), or had a big financial sector (Great Britain). Yes, the responsibility for the entrance of weak economies into the Eurozone also lies with the strong economies who allowed standards to slip. It’s like a professor who allows a cheating student to pass the exam. When the cheating is revealed, the professor responds: “Yes, but he really wanted to pass.” Which leads us to the final “yes” fact: yes, it’s not all Greece’s fault that the country entered the Eurozone and now finds itself in a difficult situation.