'The US Has Lived on Borrowed Money for Too Long'

In an interview with SPIEGEL, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, 68, criticizes US calls for Germany to reduce exports, outlines his plans for an insolvency framework for indebted European nations and the emphasizes the significance of the German-French axis for Europe...

No, whatever gave you the idea that I'd appreciate advice from Chavez.

You can pick at what I stated above all you like, but the bottom line, irrespective of whatever associated value you care to place on the Marshall Plan, is that the U.S. spent the better part of 60 years-and probably incomprehensible amounts of money-providing for the defense of Europe.

If your German Finance Minister cannot comprehend the financial consequences of this type of activity and why excessive borrowing might come into play in a situation such as this, then I think some foolishness on his part may be involved.

The Marshall Plan was an economic program, not a defense program. Unrelated US defense expenditures in Europe were also very much in a US interest ("Cold War" - you may have heard about that?). Otherwise, please explain the Korean war, the Vietnam war, military aid to Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan...(to wit, any US defense spending outside of US borders). And what's that with the new Thousand Year Reich stupidity? Do you really believe that?

“If your German Finance Minister cannot comprehend the financial consequences of this type of activity and why excessive borrowing might come into play in a situation such as this, then I think some foolishness on his part may be involved.”

There is no doubt foolishness involved. I just want to be clear, are you blaming our national debt on the Germans?

He may well be right but a lot of American money went into protecting Germany and the rest of Europe, as well as rebuilding them after WWII.

That is actually not quite correct. France (and the rest of Europe) got the Marshall plan money as a gift (in addition to German factory equipment), Germany (i.e. the Federal Republic) got it as a loan, which was paid back. Also patents that Germany lost to the United States were worth many times the Marshall Plan money.

He has the germ of a good point, which is that Germany should indeed be paying for its own defense.

Germany and Western Europe do spend less money per capita on the military than the US (where every citizen spends almost as much money on defense as on groceries - 2,200 vs 3,500), but indeed huge amounts compared to possible enemies like Iran. Germany spends 50 billion on the Bundeswehr, almost the the same as Russia (60) The combined EU military budget is half that of the United states, but it's more than China and Russia combined. In fact without the US and the EU the rest of the world does just one third of worldwide military spending.

> Germany spends 50 billion on the Bundeswehr

When was that? For the last years the budget was always around 30 bn EUR, the mission in Afghanistan included (~ 40 bn USD). After the “Reform” it will be around 25 bn EUR (~ 35 bn USD). Pathetic.

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