Since the job of the peanut gallery is to be contrarian, I'm going to defend Germany and the EMU/ECB leadership a little bit here.



Their position during the last 10 years is entangled with the worldwide situation. Namely, substantial monetary easing and/or currency devaluation of one kind or another coming out of Japan, the US, and China. (In the case of Japan and the US, by purposeful actions of central banks, in the case of China, by virtue of being pegged approximately, to the USD.).



The ECB really had no choice but to participate in the zero-interest-rate world, with the questionable incentives this propagates into all things financial.



I wonder if, had the ECB let the major EMU banks eat the losses they should have ate, then would the major EMU powers have been forced to give up their financial independence to banks in US/Japan/China, in the same way that Greece is now being forced to give up its financial independence to the solvent members of the EMU?



At the same time, ongoing globalization undercut the opportunity of the industrially weaker EMU countries to come to equilibrium by exporting their less expensive labor. Why bother going to Eastern or Southern Europe, when you can go straight to Asia?



Lastly, as mentioned in other articles here, there's the negative aspect of freedom of movement within the EU. The most talented individuals and businesses can relocate away from troubled countries which are forced to pay down debt, by collecting more taxes than they pay out in benefits.



That's a lot to untangle. An exit from the Euro, sovereign bankruptcy, devaluation, and starting to rebuild its economy from scratch, i.e., taking the position Asian countries had 10-20 years ago -- that would be one way to start for a country that got stuck on the losing end of the Euro trap. A political consolidation of Europe, combined with internal transfers and protectionism would be another -- but that's not really going to happen, is it?



The leaders of the solvent countries within the EMU are in quite a bind.