OP
Octopus
Excerpt from a recent currency traders report:
"Even though the Eurozone-wide results still showed output decreasing, the important thing for traders was that the figure was moving in the right direction, which added weight to the recent spate of claims that the worst of the debt crisis is over. Having said that the gap between the German and French, the 17-nation bloc’s largest and second largest, economies stretched to an unprecedented level, suggesting that more needs to be done to balance out labour market competitiveness, even in the Eurozone’s inner-most core."
So to reiterate my point. If you have a single currency with one set of interest rates, set by a European institution largely influenced by Germany and France, the variable european wide interest rates will benefit one country more than another, as many countries will be at different stages in the economic cycle.
The above report is saying a number of things we've been saying in this forum.
The German economy is outperforming all others including France and the difference between the 2 economies is growing. Unemployed workers are flowing towards the more successful economies with employment, creating a larger economic gap between the haves and the have nots.
Fortune favours the most powerful, not the brave.
So the Germans continue to benefit from the "weaker" Euro. If they still had their own currency their exports would be more expensive.
The Euro continues to help the strong and hinder the poor. Not sure this is what was intended.