Why Germany will never leave the eurozone

Germany may grumble about its eurozone partners. But the truth is, it gains far too much from the single currency to ever quit.

More talk on the Today programme this morning about how Germany should leave the eurozone and either take back its own currency or form a strong currency union with a few other northern European countries. Back in the days when the euro crisis was just coming to public attention, I remember thinking that this might be a workable solution I even wrote a blog on it. And while it might even still be something of a way out, I just can't see the German authorities going for it voluntarily.

Why? They've gained more from the euro than they will ever lose from bailing everyone else out. How? In general, a currency represents the strength of a country's economy. So when the UK is doing well, sterling rises. When it is doing badly, it falls (you will have noticed it mostly does the latter).

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.