It's like an algae bloom in an ocean, the German economy is strangling the rest of the Euro zone. If all countries were to exit Euro Zone, Euro would probably be echanged for 30-50% more than it's currently worth and then German economy would tank.

      > Every article seems to suggest that German 
        economists are a bunch of amateurs who don't know 
        what they are doing. But from my layman's point of  
        view, it certainly doesn't look that way.

They aren't amateurs. In same manner, people running Ponzi Schemes aren't dimwitted. It's a great system it benefits German export economy greatly but it does so at expense of others.

Quick explanation: If you have weak currency, it's great for export, since stuff produced here is cheaper than elsewhere. And if currency is strong, then that favors imports, because your currency buys more in outsider market than in yours.

However the more you export, the more valued currency becomes and the more you can buy with your currency, which leads to increased import. But Germany doesn't need to ever grow its imports, because they have other countries like Greece, Italy, etc. to drag the value down.

What Germany is doing is eating its cake, having it too, at expense of other states and then blaming them for not having any cake.

Because Germany doesn't import enough, other countries can't recover and to make matters worse, they can't export since German products based on Euro and of higher quality and equal price.