Can’t agree this this time Biggles. Austerity doesn’t work. We saw that in the 30s.
On top of that, the Germans were quite happy to accept the ‘basket case’ economies into the Euro so that it kept the value far below what the DM would have been. Great for their exports. They were very happy for the Greeks and others to load up on debt to buy German goods, but then pandered to the less supportive aspects of the German psyche to effectively punish (and killing) the Greek people for the sins of their elite.
Compare and contrast with their approach to Eat Germany after reunification. Says to me that we are far from ready for a federal Europe.