So argues James Neilson, one of the most talented observers/analysts in the Americas, in the outstanding Buenos Aires Herald: “It would therefore not be surprising if before too long we saw German embassies being put to the torch by irate mobs yearning to believe that all their countries’ problems are due to a wicked Teutonic plot.” The costs of unsound money are exploding. Buenos Aires Herald, 2011-11-17 THE EURO ÜBER ALLES James Neilson EU leaders are putting the euro above everything else
Like Argentina’s conversion board while it lasted, for the euro to survive people have to be convinced that it will last forever so they better get used to it. That is why Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and such awe-inspiring potentates as Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, are telling the Greeks, Spaniards and Italians that should they be crazy enough to opt out they would be left to starve amid the ruins of what were once thriving economies. It would seem that, as far as Europe’s political leaders are concerned, the euro is so important that nothing else really matters. If millions of Greeks, Italians and other riff-raff have to be sacrificed on its altar, so be it.
Given the circumstances, the willingness of “Merkozy” and the rest to subordinate everything to the euro is understandable. For them it is a fixed point in a bewilderingly changing universe in which nothing stays in the same place for more than a few minutes. By now, even the single currency’s most enthusiastic supporters must appreciate that it was foolish of them to imagine that all the many countries that are using it would somehow “converge,” transforming themselves into versions of Germany in which everyone would pay their taxes and governments would behave sensibly, but they feel it is too late for them to try something different.
That is why first Greece and then Italy went into receivership. Having found their prime ministers, George Papandreou and Silvio Berlusconi, wanting, Mrs Merkel had them replaced by worthy technocrats who can be relied upon to do her bidding. As was immediately pointed out, the principal qualification of the Greek Lucas Papademos and the Italian Mario Monti is that, having spent years in other parts of the world in academy or working for the European Central Bank, they don’t think like their benighted compatriots and therefore can be relied upon to do whatever it takes to knock their countries’ finances into shape without putting up with any populist nonsense from the local políticos.
For a week or two, Greeks and Italians may prove willing to tolerate the new arrangement. As was the case here when the currency board came apart and the country slid towards chaos, many —perhaps most of them — say they are thoroughly fed up with their politicians’ unsavoury antics and welcome a chance to dispense with their services. But this helpful mood is unlikely to last for very long. Enjoying the support of Merkel and her sidekick Sarkozy may have helped Papademos and Monti get where they are, but it will not be long before people who are affected by the “tough measures” to start treating them as unwanted imperial proconsuls whose mission is to incorporate Greece and Italy into a Greater Germany.
Perhaps attitudes would change if the Germans agreed to dole out huge quantities of cash in an effort to ingratiate themselves with political bosses, trade union leaders and public employees, but that is something the Germans have no intention of doing. Why should they part with good money so Greek hairdressers can retire at fifty on a generous pension while they have to work until they are 65, they ask, and then vote against Merkel’s party because they think it is too inclined to make excuses for lazy foreigners. That being the case, the Germans will inevitably be blamed for the hardship that lies in wait for millions of people living in Europe’s rapidly expanding “periphery.” Some of these may thoroughly deserve to go hungry for a while, but there are many others who are every bit as thrifty, industrious and talented as any Berliner.
The European Union, capped by the euro, was created in order to do away with the old nationalistic demons that had caused so much fearful trouble in the past, but the frantic efforts to keep it intact look bound to have the opposite effect. In Greece, grossly unfair comparisons between Germany’s current government and the Nazis have become routine. Soon they will be made in similar abundance in Italy, Portugal, Spain andFrance. Talk about splitting the Eurozone into a virtuous Germanic bloc and a feckless Latin one is helping this along; the French want to think they belong by rights to the former, but the dreaded “markets” are beginning to let them know it disagrees. Should their country be next in line for a financial mugging, they will no doubt react with their habitual nationalistic fury.
In Europe, Germany has assumed the role that was (and for some, still is) played by the International Monetary Fund in Argentina. Its demands on its eurozone partners may be perfectly sensible and it may be right to point out that the problems that have arisen in Greece, Italy and Spain are home grown, but that will not prevent people from blaming the Germans for the unpleasantness enforced belt-tightening is certain to bring. But while the IMF does not represent any particular country or political movement and, in any event, is resigned to being made the scapegoat for the woes people bring upon themselves, you cannot say the same about Mrs Merkel. It would therefore not be surprising if before too long we saw German embassies being put to the torch by irate mobs yearning to believe that all their countries’ problems are due to a wicked Teutonic plot.
