Daveon's Stuff

The problem with Germany in the Eurozone is deeper than that. Germany not only entered the Eurozone with a DM/EUR rate that favoured German industry, but in capacity and infrastructure, German industry had been outcompeting most of the rest of the Eurozone for a couple of decades. This led to a gradually strengthening DM which kept things on a somewhat even keel. Then they joined the Eurozone and suddenly German goods stayed the same price, never rising, so local consumers bought German. Their balances of payments deficit with Germany kept rising. Their household debts as well as their public debts kept rising, fuelled by lending from German banks (and French banks France was in a relatively weaker but similarly "good" position wrt the rest of the Eurozone). These loans were made at German levels of interest to both the state and individuals. That didn't reflect the real risk (even without the shenanigans that went on in behind the scenes deals to get Greece into the Eurozone in the first place, which assured that it would have unpayable public debts ten years after the Euro was created...).
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/09/time-end-pretence-greece-never-repay-bailout-loans