Should Germany leave the euro? It is, after all, the big country with an obvious exit option. The question becomes more pertinent after the decision by Angela Merkel, Germany’s conservative chancellor, to support Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, against Jens Weidman, her appointee as head of the Bundesbank, over plans to buy bonds of governments in difficulty. The president of the Bundesbank, Germany’s most respected institution, has now become a spokesman for conservative German eurosceptics. The ECB, Germans realise, will not remain a reincarnated Bundesbank. Once again, we are reminded that the eurozone is set to be a miserable marriage. Might a separation, however disruptive, be better?
德國是否應退出歐元區？畢竟，它是一個明顯有退出選擇的大國。在購買困難國家的國債問題上，持保守立場的德國總理安格拉•梅克爾(Angela Merkel)決定支持歐洲央行行長馬里奧•德拉吉(Mario Draghi)，反對她本人任命的德國央行(Bundesbank)行長延斯•魏德曼(Jens Weidmann)的意見，這讓德國是否退出歐元區的問題顯得更爲恰切。作爲德國最受尊敬的機構——德國央行的行長，魏德曼如今已成爲保守的德國歐元懷疑論者的代言人。德國人意識到，歐洲央行將不再是德國央行的再版。這再一次提醒我們，歐元區的成立就好比是一樁悲慘的「婚姻」。那麼，離開——不管後果多嚴重——對德國而言是一種更理想的選擇嗎？