germany

German talk on euro is cheap

Germany is changing its tune, but you can barely hear it above all the creaking and wheezing in the euro zone.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble this weekend ruled out ejecting a faltering country from the European common currency. He said the consequences would be "unforeseeable" and potentially as disruptive as the 2008 demise of Lehman Brothers.

That's a welcome sign someone in Germany is coming to grips with reality. German leaders have spent recent months criticizing the MORE

Will Germany's crackdown backfire?

Will Germany's crackdown on speculators throw gasoline on the euro bonfire?

In a bid to tamp down speculation in volatile bond markets, Germany's financial authorities moved Tuesday to ban naked short sales of eurozone debt and the use of credit default swaps by those who don't hold the underlying bonds. Germany also banned naked short sales of the stock of 10 major financial firms, including Deutsche Bank (DB) and insurer Allianz.

Reports MORE

The hypocrisy of the Germans

Maybe Teutonic discipline isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Fortune's Katie Benner notes today that the euro zone's crisis has given Germany a chance to throw its ample weight around. Default fears in Greece, and to a lesser degree Portugal, have sent investors rushing into both gold and its closest paper equivalent,  German government debt. In an echo of the flight to safety that has sent U.S. Treasury yields tumbling, MORE