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But this was not a bailout. Greece was never bailed out. [...] Greece's bailout, then Ireland's, then Portugal's, then Spain's primarily rescue packages for French and German banks.

The result was that German workers, as their share of their employers' profits fell, could not afford the goods they produced. Deprived of domestic demand, surplus German products thus flowed to places like Ireland, Greece and Spain, where demand for them was supported by the loans Franz and his Fr…

the labour market measures--known as the Hartz reforms--that the German Federal Republic enacted as soon as euro notes began to circulate. Implemented at a time of US-led growth, these reforms aimed at enhancing German exports and their competitiveness by making them cheaper through reducing German workers' average take-home pay significantly, both by cutting hourly wage rates and pushing large numbers of workers into so-called mini-jobs.

Given that the purpose of going through the palaver of re-creating a lost currency is to devalue it vis-a-vis the currency in people's hip pockets, leaving the euro is tantamount to announcing a major devaluation a year before it happens.