Abstract

To set the stage for an analysis of the role of Germany in the still ongoing and unsettled debt crisis of the Eurozone, let me start with a brief review of the name-giving phenomenon, the Euro. The Euro is the monetary system of the European Union. It is a regime that, together with the Stability and Growth Pact and various subsequently adopted tools to control fiscal policies and the viability of the banking system of member states, subjects them to a unitary framework of rules with which their monetary, fiscal and trade policies must comply and which also indirectly affects the leeway of their social policies.