{"id":1528,"date":"2017-11-04T01:12:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T22:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=1528"},"modified":"2017-11-04T01:12:47","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T22:12:47","slug":"joschka-fischer-germany-is-about-to-destroy-europe-a-third-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/1528\/joschka-fischer-germany-is-about-to-destroy-europe-a-third-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Joschka Fischer, Germany is about to destroy Europe a third time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s not delude ourselves: if the euro falls apart, so will the European Union<\/strong> (the world\u2019s largest economy), triggering a global economic crisis on a scale that most people alive today have never experienced. Europe is on the edge of an abyss,<\/em> and will surely tumble into it unless Germany \u2013 and France \u2013 alters course.<\/p>\n

France will have to say yes to a political union:<\/strong> a common government with common parliamentary control for the eurozone. The eurozone\u2019s national governments already are acting in unison as a de facto government to address the crisis. What is becoming increasingly true in practice should be carried forward and formalized.<\/p>\n

Germany, for its part, will have to opt for a fiscal union.<\/strong> Ultimately, that means guaranteeing the eurozone\u2019s survival with Germany\u2019s economic might and assets: unlimited acquisition of the crisis countries\u2019 government bonds by the European Central Bank, Europeanization of national debts via Eurobonds, and growth programs to avoid a eurozone depression and boost recovery.<\/em><\/p>\n

One can easily imagine the ranting in Germany about this kind of program: still more debt! Loss of control over our assets! Inflation! It just doesn\u2019t work!<\/p>\n

But it does work: Germany\u2019s export-led growth is based on just such programs in the emerging countries and the US.<\/em><\/p>\n

If China and America had not pumped partly debt-financed money into their economies beginning in 2009, the German economy would have taken a serious hit.<\/p>\n

Germans must now ask themselves whether they, who have profited the most from European integration, are willing to pay the price for it or would prefer to let it fail.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond political and fiscal unification and short-term growth policies, Europeans urgently need structural reforms<\/strong> aimed at restoring Europe\u2019s competitiveness.<\/strong> Each of these pillars is needed if Europe is to overcome its existential crisis.<\/p>\n

Do we Germans understand our pan-European responsibility? It certainly does not look that way. Indeed, rarely has Germany been as isolated as it is now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is still not too late to change direction, but now we have only days and weeks, perhaps months,<\/em> rather than years.<\/p>\n

Germany destroyed itself \u2013 and the European order \u2013 twice in the twentieth century, and then convinced the West that it had drawn the right conclusions.<\/p>\n

Only in this manner \u2013 reflected most vividly in its embrace of the European project \u2013 did Germany win consent for its reunification.<\/p>\n

It would be both tragic and ironic if a restored Germany, by peaceful means and with the best of intentions, brought about the ruin of the European order a third time.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Excerpts from J. Fischer’s, The Threat of German Amnesia,<\/em> Project Syndicate, May 25, 2012. Emphasis in bold or italics added by Ellopos. Joschka Fischer was German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998 to 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s not delude ourselves: if the euro falls apart, so will the European Union (the world\u2019s largest economy), triggering a global economic crisis on a scale that most people alive today have never experienced. Europe is on the edge of an abyss, and will surely tumble into it unless Germany \u2013 and France \u2013 alters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[3557,3560,2018,3559,3116,3396,3547,3558,3550,3548],"class_list":["post-1528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","tag-eurobonds","tag-european-integration","tag-europeans","tag-eurozone","tag-german-economy","tag-germans","tag-global-economic-crisis","tag-growth-policies","tag-joschka-fischer","tag-national-debts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}