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So in short, it is Germany’s fault that they lent money to their neighbors and that they don’t spend themselves into oblivion like their neighbors...

So now if Germany doesn’t play ball the way its neighbors see fit then Germany is using a “jackboot” on them...

Nice...

Germany’s big mistake was joining the Euro.

You should pay a bit closer attention to what Germany is exactly demanding; they actually want control of other countries' budgets. And the recent loans (the putative "bailouts") were forced on the countries now in the biggest heap of trouble. There was no reason to raise the interest rates on all countries that couldn't handle it; that was only done in Germany's interest.

The euro was Germany's baby. You might have noticed, though, that Germany was the only country that didn't sign over its gold reserves to the European central banks, so even though there could have been a gold-backed euro, the elites didn't allow it.

And remember, Germany does not have a free market but a social market, and regards the free market with distaste if not open hatred (calling it the "Anglo-Saxon model", which is failing not because of what it is but because of not staying true to itself). They do not think like the USA when it comes to economics—they certainly don't think like US conservatives do.

It was much easier for Bismarck to whip the four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, and three republics, each with its own constitution and representative system, into a fiscal union than (Chancellor) Merkel and President Sarkozy with the eurozone, because of his success in battle.

Germans indulged in a huge stock-market spending spree after their victory over France, sparking an investment flurry everywhere. Then, flush with French gold from the spoils of war, Bismarck decided to raise interest rates, cease minting silver, and to institute the popularly named Goldmark only two years after unification. This caused the international value of silver to plummet. Money became scarce and the Vienna stock exchange collapsed, followed by Berlin and Wall Street. Austrians would rant against the ‘unwise expansion, insolvency and dishonest manipulation’ of the Vienna stock exchange for years.

In the aftermath of the 1873 stock exchange debacle, Germany and the whole of the western world suffered a long depression. Yet Bismarck realized that the foundation of Germany’s success would be a strong economy and he was prepared to help to enable it to succeed. Although the private German banks lost their power after 1870, and many small banks collapsed, the newly founded Deutsche Bank emerged from the stock market crash unscathed and soon became the right-arm of industry. Smiled upon by government, the years of depression eventually produced the triumph of German big industry on world markets, under Prussian dominance.

The 1929 crash bore marked similarity with the 1873 crash in that it was associated with the return to the Gold Standard, huge capital flows from Europe to America, and rising interest rates. In addition there was a political dimension, when insiders who had put their trust in Germany suddenly became aware that they had been deceived. In the crash’s aftermath, there was a deep depression.

There was no spending spree in Germany after the euro arrived. As German wages stagnated, or were lowered, Germans invested their money abroad. Indeed, Britain’s former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, asserted in his International Herald Tribune article, on 21^st August 2011, that the ‘German banks were supplying the drinks’ for the stock market boom in America and Southern Europe. Naturally, others joined in the party. Indeed, it seemed as though the world was awash with cash. Eventually, however, the European Central Bank started to raise interest rates. Then the ECB, egged on by the Bundesbank, raised them yet again, first to eradicate internal, then external inflation. Commodities tumbled worldwide, European money deserted Wall Street and Lehman Brothers collapsed. Many, many books have since been written by the bankers, lamenting their foolishness and greed. …

History repeating itself twice after the first debacle. Talk about not learning from history!

For years I thought the whole Euro deal was a back door way for Germany, with its big economy, to become the honcho of all Europe.
As it is turning out Germany is to the rest of Europe what China is the the U.S.A., A bank from which to borrow money.
With little chance of paying it back.

That is the authors point.

If Germany would just pony up the money to prop up the PIIGS, then all would be happy! But the nasty Germans demand concessions with the loans, like the Greeks actually getting their spending under control, so they are evil.

This whole thing is the welfare trap being played out on an international scale.