European anger finds a new target

By R.A. | LONDON

LEADERS around Europe have had enough of the reckless and irresponsible behaviour of one of its member states, which has once again led the euro zone to the brink of crisis. Europeans are increasingly giving voice to anger at...Germany:

[A]s bond markets have reacted and plummeted in the weeks since...resentment has begun to boil over, with increasing accusations that Ms Merkel has put many of her fellow eurozone leaders in untenable positions in order to reinforce her own standing with German taxpayers.

“They're unprintable at times,” said Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies, of the angry remarks he has heard aimed towards Berlin...

German officials insist their campaign to get private bondholders to shoulder more bail-out costs is not just about domestic considerations. The government is more concerned that the current system – which condemns well-managed states to bailing out badly managed ones – is unsustainable.

But even some of those well-managed states have expressed anger at German tactics. Countries such as the Netherlands, Finland and Austria, all normally allies of Germany in economic governance issues, have raised questions about Berlin's behaviour.

There are a lot of things going on here, not least that the German desire to impose German thrift and hard money on the rest of Europe has made for a more painful recession across much of Europe than needed to be the case. But the frustration with Germany's specific approach to the debt crisis is very understandable. No one likes paying for bail-outs, but the fact is that the cost to prop up Greece, Ireland, and Portugal is not all that burdensome. But by playing games and trying to cut its share of the bill, Germany is repeatedly scaring markets and endangering recoveries in healthy parts of the euro zone as well as the troubled periphery. And it's no more fun being brought to the brink by Germany than it is being put in the same position by Greece.