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Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

I enjoyed the time I spent in Berlin last year and I've considered going back there but this seems imprudent with the Euro on the verge of implosion.

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I wouldn't worry too much about a crashing Euro. The exchange rates will most likely become more favourable for other currencies if that would happen. If you plan on staying there a longer period you might even see Germany reverting to Deutsche Mark, which should be even more favourable when exchanging back to your own currency once you leave considering that Germany itself has a very strong economy.

That's funny. ;)

Some Euro countries (Greece) might be on the verge of implosion, but there's no way the general currency could suffer any significant damage and Germany is the very reason for that.

The German economy is among the most powerful in the world and quite frankly you're more likely to experience an economic collapse in the US than in Germany. (Albeit that's pretty unlikely too, obviously. At least for now.)

Actually, an economic collapse in the US is one of the most likely things to occur during this century. If you can't see that coming you must be very naive.

The real risk is that a contagion effect could bring about the split up of the Eurozone, and in that case a new Deutsche Mark would make German export much less competitive (and Berlin much less cheap). It's not likely, but it's still a big risk.

There's no chance of the Euro zone falling apart. The worst thing that could happen is Greece exiting the Euro zone.

Which would rapidly approach equivalence to a New Deutschemark.

Germany has itself in the Euro trap just as strongly as the PIIGS. If they go under, how will Germany keep its currency down and where will it export to?

Seriously, Greece is a small and fairly unimportant part of the European economy.

The Euro collapsing is an apocalyptic scenario that requires quite a lot of things to go wrong. Much more than just Greece.

I agree that it would be an apocalyptic scenario and would require a lot of things to go wrong. But if every eurozone member only thinks about its immediate interests instead of working together and acting in a decisive manner, everything could really go wrong.

By definition the problems of greece are the problems of germany because they share the same currency. As greece is unable to pay its debts, the only ways to help it are inflationary. Monetary inflation is what drives down the value of currencies, and thus the value of the currency germany uses will be driven down at the same time.

We're in the process of experiencing an economic collapse in the USA, and in Europe right now, and have been since 2008. The thing is, these things start small and people don't understand them until they are well underway... just as people didn't think there was going to be a problem in 2008 back in 2001 when the cause of the collapse started.

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