If Germany does commit itself to a €500 billion rescue package using public money, this will cost every German household, by my calculation, €12,755 (£9,913). Since it will cost each German household just under ten thousand pounds, amounting to 20% of German GDP, it raises the question: can Germany really afford the financial package which is currently being offered?
The multi-trillion euro package offered by the pan-European collective sounds impressive, but our qualm should be: can Germany afford this contribution and can indeed Europe afford its grand promises?
The Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house of Parliament has already agreed to the government’s €500bn rescue package by a large sweeping majority in spite of its national critics.
It at least seems proper and right that Chancellor Merkel has declared she is abandoning her aim of balancing Germany’s budget by 2011. There would be no chance of that happening.
