http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,790138,00.html
It always gives me a sour taste when I see German newspapers heaping condemnation on the southern members of the Eurozone. It takes two to tango and it takes a poor lender and a poor borrower to put together a bad loan. If German banks and financial companies couldn't be bothered to check whether they were going to be paid back they shouldn't have gone on handing out more loans.
Joseph Stiglitz makes a good point when he says that the world needs borrowers and lenders to function. While lenders might be in a stronger position when the world tips over into recession this doesn't mean that it they are in ethically superior to nations that are net creditors.
It also doesn't help that the article isn't internally consistent. Sensible, Protestant, Northern Europe vs the slack, profligate, Catholic South makes a nice newspaper headline. However, even the Spiegel acknowledges that Belgium has similar levels of debt to Italy and Greece. Presumably we should be blaming the Catholic Waloons for contaminating poor, sensible Belgium with debtor tendencies?
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