NYTimes: French and German Ties Fray Over Greek Crisis

This is a good article in the NYT  about strains on the euro and the eu caused by financials strains as the Club Med countries overspend while Germany pays

NY Times:

PARIS — France
and Germany
traditionally have been the “motor” of the European
Union, but relations between the two countries are badly strained
over the Greek debt crisis, which is just the latest example of a new
German willingness to resist the demands of Europe and assert its
self-interest under Chancellor Angela
Merkel.

“There has been a tectonic shift in the way Germany acts in Europe,”
said Ulrike Guérot, a
senior research fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Germans, she says, are “talking of behaving ‘normally’ now, like the
others, and that means nationally.”

The global financial stress is the first real test of the euro currency block and it is proving to be a problem. The trouble is likely to get worse before it gets better. Germany has to wonder if they wouldn't be better off on their own rather than paying for everyone else. Rather like the US and NATO.