A Greek domino effect in Europe could have unfathomable global consequences. Germany would inevitably be sucked in, despite its own brilliant economic performance and financial discipline. From this point of view, Germany should intervene in Greece to build some kind of dam for itself.
Still, there is a flip side of the coin. If Germany intervenes in Greece, it signals that any undisciplined country in Europe can hope for a free German ride, and thus that country would be encouraged to carry on its peccadilloes or large sins totally unrestrained - nanny-Berlin will always be there to save its skin. This would also inevitably bring down Germany, as the load of sins of others would eventually grow too big for Berlin to shoulder.
These alternatives entail different courses of actions for Germany. Germany could decide that Greece is its problem, and thus push for a European political union that eventually would de facto politically take over Greece and the rest of Europe. Berlin, aided by other disciplined European countries, could administratively “invade” sinful countries and bring about a European economic discipline that would eventually save the continent.
The idea of kicking the Greeks out of the euro is the cleanest and clearest - it is that of the school principal booting out the rowdy kid. But it is also an admission of defeat: the principal says, “I can’t educate that kid,” and thus he admits that his teaching (administrative in this case) methods are not working or they are no good. It would be an utter defeat of the idea of greater unity in Europe, something that has grown to be fundamental in European cultural consciousness and perceptions in the past 70 years, after the huge massacres of the two world wars.
It would be an historic u-turn; it could move Europe back to the times of unending wars and confrontations, and prove that decade-long conflicts in Yugoslavia were not minor law-and-order episodes, like some kind of mafia wars, but exposed once again the deep undying seed of blood in the European soul. Then, Germany, although it would gain time, would be inevitably sucked in.
This leaves us with the first option, the one that at first sight is the most despicable, as it would imply in fact a German takeover of Europe, something that the rest of Europe had successfully managed to avoid through over a century of fights. It is very complicated, and it is very risky. It causes great qualms and suspicion all over Europe - but especially in the United Kingdom and France (which managed to avoid two expansions at great cost), and also in Russia and the US, as certainly a new German Europe would change the outline of the world. Most importantly, it runs against Germans’ own fear of themselves. But other options, if carefully gauged, are even scarier. Those options might mean wars and destruction, and the end of hard-achieved and widespread continental welfare.
My preference is (author’s preference that is), as Dante wished in the 13th century, for the German emperor to take over, and thus for peace and welfare in Europe.
The author’s conclusion is the same as Hitler’s; the only way to build Europe into a Economic Union is to use a really big ugly stick.
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn’t happen again.
We taught them a lesson in nineteen eighteen,
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.
— Tom Lehrer
Your have some great thoughts and ideas. I thinking kicking Greece out of the Euro and putting them on probation to get back in is probably the best idea. Otherwise, they will just continue their failed socialist policies that got them into this economic crisis in the first place.