Euro Monetarists Hear the D-Mark Knocking at the Door

Fear among monetarists that their eurozone regime will collapse, that the D-mark and other national currencies of Europe will return, is increasing—evident in more and more articles in mainstream media that deal with the issue. This week's edition of Germany's Der Spiegel has a cover story showing a melting euro coin, with the headline "The Euro Lie" which in the twisting style characteristic for this weekly, lists many of the present problems of the euro and even warns that a Greek bailout would trigger another legal action by the four anti-euro professors (Prof. Hankel, et al.) of 1998 at the German Constitutional Court. But for the weekly, the solution lies in the creation of a European Monetary Fund, with the euro kept as all-European currency, rather than any "new currency."

More direct than Der Spiegel, the Sunday edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung warned against the imminent collapse of the euro system, writing: "Who does not remembers the vows of stability, which were used to sell the euro to the Germans? Back then it was said, that this would be guaranteed by a politically independent central bank, and secondly, fiscal political discipline of all euro countries, because of the clear rules in the treaties. This is almost unheard of today. But more is said instead about the ways and means how to jointly break the law. If the 'no-bail-out clause' is eliminated, the last anchor for a stable euro is destroyed. Then the currency/monetary union becomes a debt union.

"The citizens have to pay a high price for that, with the depreciation in the value of their money and their pensions. Fearing for the fruits of their labor, many German are longing for the stable Mark. If the Maastricht Treaty is violated, the legal basis for the euro disappears with the next lawsuit in Karlsruhe. A third euro judgment by the Constitutional Court could seal the end of the monetary union. But in this way, the Germans would get their Mark back."