It occurred to me initially in a fleeting thought simply as a wickedly amusing piece of unintended revenge, but the more I mull it over, the more it seems almost guided by a far greater hand.
The way things are most likely to turn out in the EZ is that Germany will use, either willingly or unwillingly (pushed by many urgent hands at the edge of the federation’s precipice); their surplus, their work ethic, their stringent (mostly) fiscal management, their apparent delight in self-flagellating austerity and most importantly their money derived from hard work, to bail out Europe’s very own sunshine states. Through whatever mechanism is finally adopted.
Germany has already carried out this act of apparent generosity both indirectly and directly with the East European states, but that was more of a financial inducement to them which it was argued, would in time come back and bolster their surplus through development of new export markets, initially primed with cash borrowed from the exporter (Germany). However spectacularly this has mis-fired it was still flow of all of the above from Germans to non-Germans. That the ‘grateful’ East Europeans used the money to build their own competitive export markets to challenge German product is an irony enjoyed by most, apart from the Germans of course.
So the Germans gave the East Europeans money to buy German stuff, but instead they went off to build an export infrastructure to challenge the German export markets and the Germans will give the Southern states money to plug the holes wrought through indolent Mediterranean insouciance, government corruption, industrial and commercial incompetence and reckless fiscal mismanagement at all levels.
It would seem, that perhaps what goes around comes around and all of Europe has been using the Germans as slave labour.