Please stop defaming Germany out there in the blogosphere.

The Germans gave up the D-Mark reluctantly under French and Italian pressure, as the price for acquiescence in Reunification.

They entered EMU at an overvalued rate after the Reunification bubble, leaving them in semi-slump for half a decade.

They slowly clawed back competitiveness the hard way, by squeezing wages and driving up productivity.
 
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, December 2nd, 2011

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