Gabor Steingart

Thank you for having me here. It is a great honour and pleasure to be your guest at HSBC. You asked me to speak about the German perspective on the Eurozone. And you asked me to speak the truth. So let’s go ahead.

The German public is disillusioned with the Euro, because we thought the other Europeans wanted to become Germans. And we couldn’t understand why they don’t want to be like us. We are so good in exports. We are champions in organization – deutsche Gründlichkeit. We are great at stability. The Italians love pasta. The French love their government. The British love Queen Mom; but we Germans love normality, consistency, if one day looks like the other we feel fantastic. The Americans would be bored. But we feel refreshed if nothing happens. That’s why we stayed with Helmut Kohl 16 years. The famous German author Tucholsky once said: Before the Germans will go to storm a train station, they would by a ticket.

So we are unhappy since we discovered: The others are so different, the rest of our beloved continent is colourful, but sloppy, friendly, but to generous, especially with our money. The Germans are seeing the new generation of politicians as dangerous strangers. This new generations calls themselves saviours, they see themselves as a part of a rescue team. They rescued us from the financial meltdown, from a second great depression, from a breakdown of the euro system.

They expect that we admire or even appreciate their attempt to rescue the banks, the Irish, the Creaks, the Euro. But we don’t admire them, because we don’t want to be rescued all the time. We expect from our politicians that they don’t put us in a position where we have to be rescued. They should have protected us from circumstances like these.

We Germans don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We think the worst is jet to come. Especially the monetary policy of the FED scares us. If Axel Weber resigns because he sees monetary policy in Europe on the wrong track we are frightened. lt’s part of our genetic code to fear inflation. We have learned the lesson which history told us twice. If the politicians start floating the economy with money, at least we are all under water. I think it was the former President of the Bundesbank, Mr. Schlesinger, who taught us: If you even start thinking about kissing inflation, you are married with it. lt looks moderate in Europe so far, I know. But the US government and the FED are buying their growth rate. Since last month the FED itself is the biggest holder of US government bonds which means: Our friends in Washington are printing money. By fighting back the last crises they are creating the next.

The Germans are addicted to leadership. We have not invented democracy, but the state of Preussen. When we look at our today’s leaders we feel insecure. Berlusconi and Sarkozy are in the business of political entertainment, but are they serious leaders? Angela Merkel is our chancellor. But does she really know where to go from here. Thanks to Wiki Leak we know what the American Ambassador, the former Goldman Sachs Executive Phil Murphy thinks about our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Guido Westerwelle: He is no Genscher. We Germans could agree more. If there is some hope it comes from our own experience that the world would never allow all of our fears to become true. At least our economy is doing not that bad. Our standard of living is growing all the time. And the good think about Europe is: If we compare ourselves with out neighbours we feel better of. If we go on vacation to the south or even to your great country, we come back as lucky people. Now you know why I’m here today.