The euro crisis: German politics of blame and austerity - A neoliberal nightmare

This article rejects a common misdiagnosis of the euro crisis. It argues that the main problem is not a 'sovereign debt crisis' but a design flaw in the EU structure. In a period marked by a global crisis of capital accumulation, this flaw threatens to become a nail in the coffin of European integration due to the absence of any mechanism to stimulate real convergence between the member states and calibration of the monetary, economic, and social aspects of the integration process. The article outlines the way in which current public debt levels can be explained by current account imbalances. Policies of regressive redistribution, meanwhile, have encouraged the formation of large private asset holdings. It is against this backdrop that the role of Germany, as the main creditor country in the euro zone, is critically assessed. Germany's approach to debt management - making solidarity conditional on tough fiscal discipline and public sector reforms - is criticized not only for being a major factor undermining the survival of the Euro, but also for eroding democracy both within the nation states as well as on the European level.