The EU consists of independent countries which have their own governments, their own economic policies, their own banks, ... a real-estate bubble in Greece is fully the responsibility of Greece.
A hot 'real-estate' market not stoppable? Where was it tried?
How about Mexico? Would the US pay for Mexico to prevent a bancruptcy there?
If someone in the US decided the interbank interest rate, then they would have shared responsibility.
You are very misguided. The EU is one thing and the eurozone is a different thing. The UK does have some economic independence and very importantly, monetary independence. Those countries in the eurozone have surrendered their monetary policy to the ECB, and the ECB responds mostly to the interests of Germany, followed by France, followed by Italy, Spain and then smaller countries.
The economic cycle of Germany is substantially out of phase with that of most countries from Southern Europe, who in turn thought the Germans would pay for the party. In any case it wasn't their call. Turns up things have snowballed out of control.
Yes it is out of sync b/c Germany cut costs in the 2000, cut social security, changed job laws, increased the minimum pension age etc while the southern countries increased spending and increased massively labor costs.
You seem to think "southern countries" collectively decided to increase costs while Germany took the high road. Southern Countries HAD their costs increased and their internal inflation out of control, so the ECB could help out the then-struggling Germany and France duo.
Germany was stagnating in 2000 and MISSED their promised objectives, while Southern Countries were growing healthily. Then they found themselves with extremely low rates to help growth in Germany and France, which was basically "free money" and an out-of-cycle policy they simply did not know how to deal with. Their internal corruption did the rest.
There is one way to enforce responsibility: stop giving away free money, either be it through low rates, or through "rescue packages" done to ensure your banks won't need to swallow a massive hole from not having their lent money back.
A bit too late for this, but hey, better late than never.
- raise the rates. NEVER drop the rates below 5% as long as there is a single overheating economy in the monetary Union.
- drop the debt. Suck it up. No more rescue plans, also buh-bye to the money irresponsibly lent away. Maybe you didn't know this but you have already dropped a lot of it. Now it's when the big monster Merkel has been avoiding will rear its ugly head: the same will have to happen with other MUCH bigger countries than Greece. This will cost Germany and all the other countries massively, you will be in RECESSION for some years.
Otherwise they will be out of the Euro and then you can bet your lucky pants they will declare bankruptcy and they won't repay the debt or any rescue we (EU members including the UK that's not even in the eurozone) have given them, as Argentina did not that long ago when they let their currency float. Simply because they are unable at this point to go into a position from which they can repay.
Even with those "cuts" the German wages are still 2 times over the "southern countries".
Except if you mean to say that those in the South are less humans and do not deserve even half the wages and social welfare that Germans do --which Germany has historically said in a few occasions...
A hot 'real-estate' market not stoppable? Where was it tried?
How about Mexico? Would the US pay for Mexico to prevent a bancruptcy there?