Germany should remember what it's got from the euro

At a weekend conference discussing the lessons from the economic crisis, as much time was devoted to the prospect of Germany leaving the euro zone as there was to the "peripheral" countries of Greece, Portugal or Spain abandoning it. The conference of prominent economists, current and former officials and others was held at Ditchley Park, a stately home in the English countryside. To be sure, nobody was predicting any such exit is likely, certainly not in the short term. But if Germans feel they got a bad deal in swapping their low-inflation Deutschmark for an arrangement that forces them periodically to transfer enormous sums of money to southern Europe, then that shouldn't be ignored. There was, however, another parallel message from the conference, organised by the London-based Centre for European Reform: Germans, get over it. You've been the biggest winners from the euro.