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Did Germany Just Destroy the Euro?


Andreas Vosskuhle, Chairman of the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, opens a hearing on February 11, at the court in Karlsruhe, southern Germany.(ULI DECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Into the breach stepped the new head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, wielding what has somehow become known as a “big bazooka.” If a government had trouble borrowing the money it needed to keep going, he promised to print an unlimited amount of money and lend it (in a convoluted way) to the troubled government, in a process called Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). Draghi hoped that this “bazooka” would never need to be used. If investors believed that the ECB would never allow a government to go bankrupt, then they would lend money more easily.

It worked. The euro crisis peaked in the autumn of 2012. It has still been simmering away, never actually solved, but Draghi’s move averted the immediate danger. Until last Friday. On that date the German Constitutional Court, based in Karlsruhe, issued a ruling that will make it very hard for Draghi to use his bazooka.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11364.19.0.0/economy/euro/did-germany-just-destroy-the-euro

In a worst-case scenario, the Constitutional Court could forbid Berlin from contributing to efforts to save the euro or even force Germany to leave the currency zone entirely...




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Euroland | EP2014 | transcontinental | transeuropean




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