Thanks to the south and the productivity gap, yes.

Oh. I see what you mean, I think. The euro was easier to keep low enough for exports than the mark had been?

siggy47

Since the introduction of the Euro Getmany is running a mercantile style export economy. The installed a low wage sector during the Schröder years (1998-2003) and pushed the southern european industry against the wall by using a double comparative advantage. The Eurozone was made for the german industry to kill competition.

TomK

Meta Econ Takeover Day18

Undisciplined

Maybe @TomK can tell me if I'm off base, but I feel like Germany has used the euro as its de facto reserve currency in a similar way to how the U.S. has taken advantage of the dollar.  Southern Europe has been in a funk for years. It's only now that the privileged nation is feeling the effects. This is of course in addition to the problems caused by the socialist policies that span the EU.