German taxpayers have already given a great deal to their Eurozone partners by funding $50 billion of the region’s nearly $1 trillion financial security package. The massive rescue facility has not calmed doubts about the future of the euro, which has traded below $1.20.

The Germans will now try to teach the other, less financially well-off governments in the region how austerity is done. The German cabinet has approved a package of over $13 billion in budget cuts for 2011. The Germans, as a matter of course, do not spend most of their time at the beach while the government pays their jobless claims and medical costs the way that people in Greece and Spain do.

Douglas A. McIntyre