New York Times
Editorial
October 21, 2011
Helmut Schmidt, Germany’s 92-year-old former chancellor, sent a pointed message to his present-day successor, Angela Merkel, this week. Shortchanging Europe damages Germany, he warned in a speech in Frankfurt. “Of course the strong should help the weak,” he said, just as Germany was helped by America after World War II.
We hope Mrs. Merkel heeds his advice. As of Friday, she was still blocking the European Union from bolstering its inadequate bailout fund. She does favor bigger write-downs of Greek debt (German banks have shed their exposure), which must be part of any solution. But other countries cannot afford to go along without the European-financed bank recapitalization that she opposes.
Europe’s leaders have now decided to defer crucial decisions to midweek — not much time to do what they have failed to do for a year and a half: create a realistic recovery program for Greece, keep the debt crisis from engulfing Italy and Spain and recapitalize European banks so they can survive the write-downs ahead.
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