What strikes me — a parallel that for some motive I haven’t seen many individuals drawing — is the distinction between Germany’s present reluctance to make reasonable sacrifices, even within the face of horrific warfare crimes, and the immense sacrifices Germany demanded of different nations in the course of the European debt disaster a decade in the past.
As some readers might bear in mind, early final decade a lot of southern Europe confronted a disaster as lending dried up, sending rates of interest on authorities debt hovering. German officers had been fast accountable these nations for their very own plight, insisting, with a lot moralizing, that they had been in hassle as a result of they’d been fiscally irresponsible and now wanted to pay the worth.
Because it seems, this analysis was largely unsuitable. A lot of the surge in southern European rates of interest mirrored a market panic relatively than fundamentals; borrowing prices plunged, even for Greece, after the president of the European Central Financial institution mentioned three phrases — “no matter it takes” — suggesting that the financial institution would, if crucial, step in to purchase the debt of troubled economies.
But Germany took the lead in demanding that debtor nations impose excessive austerity measures, particularly spending cuts, regardless of how massive the financial prices. And people prices had been immense: Between 2009 and 2013 the Greek financial system shrank by 21 % whereas the unemployment price rose to 27 %.
However whereas Germany was prepared to impose financial and social disaster on nations it claimed had been irresponsible of their borrowing, it has been unwilling to impose far smaller prices on itself regardless of the simple irresponsibility of its previous vitality insurance policies.
I’m unsure how you can quantify this, however my sense is that Germany obtained much more and clearer warning about its feckless reliance on Russian gasoline than Greece ever did about its pre-crisis borrowing. But it appears as if Germany’s well-known eagerness to deal with financial coverage as a morality play applies solely to different nations.
To be honest, Germany has moved on from its preliminary unwillingness to assist Ukraine in any respect; Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany claims, though the Germans deny it, that he was advised there was no level in sending weapons as a result of his authorities would collapse in hours. And possibly, possibly, the conclusion that refusing to close off the stream of Russian gasoline makes Germany de facto complicit in mass homicide will lastly be sufficient to induce actual motion.