Germany struggled in the early years of their membership of the Eurozone with deficits well in excess of the Maastricht fiscal rules (maximum of 3 per cent of GDP), which I wrote about that in these blogs – Eurozone battle lines being drawn again with Germany on the other side andGermany contracts as the French suggest defiance – among others.But while Germany lectures the rest of Europe about its fiscal superiority, the only way they can run these surpluses now, given it is suppressing domestic demand and reducing the well-being of its own people, is because it is exploiting the current account deficits of other nations, many of them its own Eurozone partners.

Remember.. Germany had some of the highest budget deficits in Europe before and right after joining the Euro. Then they destroyed manufacturing throughout Europe and then forced those countries to buy their stuff.  Now they are lecturing those countries for running deficits!

Shame on them.

Source: Germany’s serial breaches of Eurozone rules | Bill Mitchell – billy blog