>no natural resources (their huge Lithium reserves weren't discovered until very recently)>extremely high tech sector and many hidden champions (hyper-specialized businesses having almost a monopoly in a niche market)>USA patrols the seven seas for them, so they get to benefit from Free Trade without having a big surface fleet to patrol the oceansThe idea that Germany just had a huge economic advantage by trading their Deutschmark, because their exports are cheaper, is just not that historically proven. With a strong currency they can buy resources for extremely cheap and maintain their high tech, resource intensive economic sectors. These sectors also are expensive and very complex anyway, so them being more expensive wouldn't matter as much. It would be a different story of course, if Germany tried to directly compete with China for cheap export goods.It really should have been obvious that the Euro might give Germany a temporary boost, but would long-term end their unique economic position in the world. And I am not even talking about how a strong currency would give German businessmen the opportunity to invest in foreign markets and buy up industries, companies and estates there. And they are directly funding countries like Poland anyway, so they get economically built up and can afford German products. And if they can do that anyway, they wouldn't need an artificially undervalued currency to do that.Germany abolishing control over their own currency and giving it to France was probably the biggest geopolitical and economic mistake in their post-war history. Even worse than giving up nuclear power. Sometime this century they will give up their position on Eurobonds and agree to pay France's debt, so this pensioner hellhole can pretend to be a first-world country.
>>18389157France wouldn't allow reunification if Germany didn't agree to give up its currency a few years down the line
