Rumors were rife that Greece was about to leave the Eurozone and give up the euro as its currency, according to an article “Euro Zone Meeting And Rumors Show Anxiety”, in the Saturday, May 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal. They quote spiegelonline as spreading the rumor, resulting in a corresponding sell off of the currency.
Germany must prevent this at all costs. No matter how much the Germany public is against paying for more loans to Greece and the rest of the “pigs” to help them survive through 2012, they know that the euro will not be such an important currency if it loses member nations. That will cut into Germany’s own ability to recover from the current recession. It will also affect its long-term plans to become an important leader over all of continental Europe. It gave up its political influence after the Second World War. It doesn’t want to lose out in economic influence now.
