Germany vs. Europe

Is Chancellor Angela Merkel Europe's Herbert Hoover? Her refusal to spend significant amounts of money during the recession has earned her in the French media the sobriquet "Madame Non" and been criticized even by her own council of economic advisers. Berlin's conservatism belies, writes The New York Times, "grudges against its European neighbors, often tinged with a measure of contempt for what it sees as their failings." Germany is Europe's largest economy and the world's largest exporter, and some its leaders see other countries' clamoring as their comeuppance for refusing "to make the hard choices in recent years that reinvigorated the German economy." But the contraction of the German economy could spell trouble for the entire European Union, especially its weaker economies.