Dear David
Ambrose' article is a powerful description of the unfolding mess. It does seem to be a matter of 'when' not 'if' the euro disintegrates, with politicians trying to delay the inevitable to avoid it happening under their watch. 

Given the history of Europe in the 20th century, it could be very difficult for Germany to be the country that exits the euro first and therefore be accused of abandoning the 'European ideal'. I feel very sorry for Germany, a country which is still paying the price for its war-mongering in the last century. 

The euro mess is mostly of France's making. It wanted a European currency to challenge the dollar. Remember how anti-USA France has been historically? Frenchman Jacques Delors chaired the group that drove through economic and monetary union. Germany was not in favour but it got press-ganged into the euro idea as a price to pay for German reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. France and the UK were not in favour of the reunification as they feared the growth in strength of Germany that would inevitably follow. Both countries had twice suffered dreadful destruction at the hands of Germany only a few decades earlier. However France then reneged on its partnership with Britain by telling Germany it would support reunification if Germany supported a new currency, the euro, to challenge the dollar. Since 'one nation' mattered most to Germany it then gave support for the euro, despite many misgivings. 

The countries of south Europe are the first to suffer, but it will rebound on France too eventually. 

Recently, the euro has been a great short opportunity with a classical trend pattern since it broke down against the US dollar in mid 2016.

Best wishes

David

David Fuller's view

Thanks for this background information which has refreshed my memory of how controversial German unification was in the early 1990s.

Here is Wikipedia on German reunification.