And here's the problem, right here

As the pleasingly pompously named Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports:

The great question is at what point Germany concludes that it cannot bear the mounting burden any longer. "I am worried that Germany's authorities are slowly losing sight of the European common good," said Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of Eurogroup finance ministers.

Um...M. Juncker, the problem is precisely that there is no European common good. What is good for some parts of Europe, is very very bad for others.

Now, there are certain goods that are indeed common to all Europeans -- but those are precisely the "goods" that the E.U. and its ruling nitwits (such as M. Juncker) are at greatest pains to eradicate. It is good when men and women are left free to enjoy the good consequences of their decisions -- and held responsible for enduring the bad consequences (except insofar as others choose to help them of their own free will). It is good for men and women to be Christians, as long as they are so not only in word but also in deed. It is good for men and women to be safe from the depradations of extortionate taxation, and unburdened by stifling bureaucratic regulation. It is good for men and women who wish to be taken care of in their old age by a younger generation, to go to the trouble and cost of producing, and raising to be virtuous, children (or at least to involve themselves self-sacrificially and personally in the lives of other people's children, preferably the unfortunate children of irresponsible parents). It is good for adults to be made to feel the responsiblity to work hard and husband their time and money and effort wisely, in order to ensure that their own needs and their children's are met at their expense, rather than allowing them to feel that they can live parasitically off the labor of others. On the other hand, it is good for the fortunate and hard-working who have put by more than they need, to become personally involved in helping the poor and unfortunate, rather than telling themselves that that's somebody else's job.

It is, in short, good for men and women to be Christian, virtuous, and free -- but the ruling classes of Europe have spent the last half-century attacking traditional Christianity, traditional virtue, and "bourgeois" individual liberties.

Oh, by the way, M. Juncker...good luck with that fiat currency the manipulation of which is supposed to proceed by consensus among vicious post-Christian politicians each seeking to maintain his own personal power by any means necessary. Oh, wait, Professor Hankel has something to say:

You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver.

Why, it's almost as if the ordinary man and woman know the difference between real money and the last-one-left-holding-it-loses Ponzi-esque scheme that is Keynesian fiat currency.