Germans disenchanted with Euro

BERLIN (MarketWatch) — Two years ago, at a semi-official Anglo-German meeting with financial and business figures in London, I asked a well-known German bank chairman with whom I have a reasonable acquaintance how he would react if Greece one day asked to leave the euro. This was an open question-and-answer session in front of about 50 people “I would act like Clint Eastwood,” my banker friend said, with rollicking good humor. “I would say, ‘Go ahead, make my day.'”

Rather revealing.

That was back in the good old days. Spreads between Greek and German 10-year bonds had started to widen. But there was nothing like the same crisis-laden atmosphere as now. I relate the story fairly often to illustrate that, in truth, there’s not a great deal of love lost between the Germans at the core of the euro and the outlying states.

Highlighting the mood of growing dismay, an opinion poll in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper indicated that 71% of Germans no longer trust the euro — up from 66% in April and less than 50% in 2008.

The Germans are happy enough to pool their currency with a bunch of homogenous states with which they have stable trading links and share similar economic and business characteristics. Countries that leave them alone, don’t make them feel guilty and don’t ask them for money. They are not too happy, though, about extending the relationship to countries which — for whatever reasons — are piling up debts owed to the Germans and other creditor nations that will never be repaid.