Billionaire business magnate George Soros is lighting up the financial world with an expansive speech on the history of the euro, which argues that, since its inception, the currency has been a bubble waiting to burst. Soros says the euro was forged on the untenable arrangement that saw creditworthy Germany balancing out weaker, debt-filled countries like Greece. Soros argues that Germany will do the bare minimum of what is "necessary to preserve the euro" — because its banks would suffer massive losses were the euro to crumble — "but nothing more." The result would be "a German empire with the periphery as the hinterland," a system in which Germany would continue to prop up weaker nations with the equivalent of financial aid. Could the European Union become a German empire?
Yes. Germany is dependent on weaker nations: Soros has made "one of the smarter arguments" for why the euro will stick around, says Ezra Klein at The Washington Post. The weaker countries on Europe's periphery act as an "ongoing subsidy to Germany" by making the euro weaker. As a result, Germany's exports are cheaper and far more competitive on the international market. If the euro were to collapse, the Germans would "lose one of the main drivers of their economy."
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