George Soros to Germany: Leave or Lead

Published Mon, Sep 10th, 2012   Wall Street Daily Research

In an interview with Reuters, financier, George Soros, said Germany should leave the eurozone if it’s not prepared to help weaker nations out of indebtedness and economic decline.

“I think Germany should either lead in developing a growth policy, political union and burden-sharing, accept the cost of leadership, or leave through an amicable arrangement that would preserve theEuropean Union, because I think Germany and everybody has a basic commitment, and great benefits from preserving the European Union, both economically and politically.”

Soros, of course, has seen a currency crisis before. In fact, he’s known as the “Man Who Broke the Bank of England” because he raked in $1 billion shorting the British pound during the 1992 “Black Wednesday” currency crisis in the UK.

Soros also said that the European Central Bank’s new bond-buying program will be damaging in the long run. The program, along with austerity measures, will send the region into a depression.

“This policy is pushing Europe into a depression which is going to last five or 10 years, because it is almost impossible to work your way out of excessive indebtedness by shrinking the economy, said. “Because the debt is a ratio between the accumulated debt and the GNP.”

Indeed, according to Soros, Europe is doomed to a prolonged and acrimonious end to the European unification project if steps aren’t taken to help its southern nations grow their way out of the debt crisis.

For its part, Germany must decide once and for all to leave the eurozone if it’s not prepared to take a more decisive lead.

“Germany itself should decide whether it wants to be one thing or the other. I think events are going to eventually force Germany to make that decision. But the longer it takes before Germany is facing that the worse the situation will become and the greater the damage, the greater the human suffering.”