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Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku
@Mentar: If you can read greek, I suggest the german-friendly vima and kathimerini, which have statements from EU officials, and german MPs on the matter, not appearing in Spiegel... some did in BBC live stream, but fewer in their website. The 40% appeared on CyBC last Friday, and again in Financial Times, and was never denied by the german ministry, unlike other claims made by cypriot politicians, like levying below 100k.
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Link, please (English needed, I can't read Greek, sorry). Personally, I have strong doubts about this because the German position has always been "how Cyprus manages their own share is up to them, as long as it's not done with new loans or crazy stuff like monetizing their pension funds and the likes". Why would Germany have an interest in demanding such an extreme haircut? Nonsense like this would immediately be used by the social democrats as fodder in the German elections, and I've never heard of this. It makes no sense to me, so I smell a fabrication.
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In any case, I don't disagree much with your conclusions in your last part of your post (except Ireland), but I want to refrain from having only one side presented. Also whatever the case, I still think that a centralized policy is safer for the people in the continent, rather then weak governments, even if at this point its policy is influenced strongly (since you dislike the term dictated) by one.
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This is pretty frustrating to me, and I believe that I can gauge the feelings of my fellow Germans (and many Dutch, Austrians and Scandinavians, too) pretty well: We don't mind making transfer payments to the less affluent parts of Europe - we also do the same between the German states which differ strongly in economic power. That's perfectly fine, we've been on the receiving end of such transfers in the past, too (think Marshall Plan).
BUT.
After the inflationary disaster of the Weimar republic, one simple truth has burned itself into the German mind: You must live within your means. You can't spend your way out of economic troubles or debts, and if that means that you need to cut back on entitlements and privileges, then SO THE F*CK BE IT. Do what's necessary, suck it up, and get back to work. We had our own painful austerity packages, so we know how it feels. Life got better several years later.
I don't have ANY interest in "dictating policy" to anyone else. I don't have ANY interest in "dominating the economy" or other revanchist stupidity. I appreciate the fact that the Euro allows me to pay in many countries without having to exchange currency, but it's not like I want to force him down the throat of other countries - in fact, the Euro was forced on Germany in exchange for the Unification, and those countries like Greece or Cyprus who now rant against the Euro were the ones who cheated (Greece) and blackmailed (Cyprus) themselves into it. So, it's come to the point that whenever I hear the PIIGS states assert sinister motives behind German positions, I feel like strangling a kitten.
Either you subscribe to the idea of balancing income and expenses, or return to your own national currency. I fully support Merkel in preventing any deal which turns the Euro into a money printing machine (like the US$). If you give wages big raises over longer periods of times, they need to be justified by production increases, and if you don't have those, you're living beyond your means. That's all Germany has been really "dictating" lately. And no, I don't consider this a bad thing. It's required.