VS

The romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romansh – the latter being spoken by fewer than 100,000 and hence largely irrelevant) are born of the tongues of ancient mega-cultures, the ancient Greek city states and the Roman Empire. Germanic tones were born in the harsh lands of vicious warrior tribes, scattered all over the coldest parts of northern Europe. English is based on regional dialects from indigenous peoples in the British Isles, embellished with Germanic words and smarting from the Norman Conquests (1066 and all that) that infused French into our bastardized language. So it is for languages.

The underlying images we carry of Teutonic/Germanic efficiency or leisurely-paced, culturally “excellent” French or Italian or Spanish art or cuisine or architecture also contrast sharply. Even in the arts, the musical compositions of a Mozart or a Beethoven are complex mathematical harmonies generated by a combination of musical genius and a Teutonic commitment to precision. Indeed, the national arrogance of France and Italy is based on art and cuisine, while Germany prides itself on discipline and precision. And so it goes with the economic chaos that defines the Western world today, as markets rise, crash and burn, rise again only to fall under the burden of lingering doubts. It is no secret that Germany resents Europe’s using the German economy as it primary support mechanism, pulling down the value Germany would have enjoyed had it never joined the European Union.

There are growing sentiments in Germany to have the weaker currencies exit the Euro currency market (at least temporarily): “Greece, they say, should leave the euro zone for its own good, as well as the Continent’s. Some German economists argue that others in the 17-nation currency union, like Portugal or even Italy, might need to leave as well… ‘It is better for all concerned, in particular for Greece, if the country leaves the euro temporarily,’ Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the influential Ifo Institute at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, wrote in an essay published two weeks ago… Continuing to throw money at Greece will only reduce incentives for the country to restructure its economy, he and other experts say, while pushing Europe toward a so-called transfer union, where strong countries must prop up weaker ones.” New York Times, August 10^th.

And now one of the bastions of the Euro, France, is facing the same credit downgrade that just hit the United States: “With the sense of economic crisis deepening in Europe after the United States debt downgrade, investors have played Who’s Next with the shrinking list of nations that still hold the top rating of AAA. And their sights have landed on France… Shares of French financial institutions were hammered Wednesday on the Paris stock exchange on mounting fears that France’s own sterling credit rating could be cut, if the cost of cleaning up the European debt crisis weighs on the nation and its banks.

“French banks are loaded up on the debt of Italy and Greece, among other troubled European countries that share the euro… It seemed not to matter that the French government — along with the credit raters Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch — issued statements on Wednesday insisting France’s rating was not at risk. The market anxieties spread wildly, engulfing Société Générale, the second-largest French bank. Its shares slumped as much as 21 percent before closing down by 14.7 percent.” NY Times.

In a world where growth cures economic ailments, Germany is beginning to believe that it is one of the few major Western economies where such a cure is even available in the foreseeable future. The United States has taken itself out of the growth race by cutting support for education, research and infrastructure, and plight of the “Romance side” of Europe is clearly noted above. Could it be that Germany and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will rise ever more powerful in the global markets as a result of the economic turmoil that has forced nations to curtail their own futures to survive in the present? Are we doing ourselves more harm than good by slicing every level of expenditure, treating investments in our future the same way we treat discretionary expenditures that produce no real economic return?

I’m Peter Dekom, and that “baby and bathwater” metaphor comes to mind.