New Documents Shine Light on Euro Birth Defects

[lakechampainer]

Link to Der Spiegel article: New Documents Shine Light on Euro Birth Defects -Operation Self-Deceit. Basically about how Kohl and the German leadership knew that Italy had fudged the numbers to qualify for the common currency, but they didn't care or tell anyone. So much for the Convergence Criteria.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-831842.html

[Snowygerry]

Everybody involved knew - two seperate former belgian PM's have admitted as much publically on several occasions.

Instead of waiting until the economic requirements for a common currency were met, Kohl wanted to demonstrate that Germany, even after its reunification, remained profoundly European in its orientation. He even referred to the new currency as a "bit of a peace guarantee."

This is the clue really, political motivations over strictly economic ones.