Is Germany Doing Right by Europe?

There’s not much of a question these days whether Germany calls the shots in the European Union. Instead, as Europe’s 2010 dirge of debt and deficit drags on, the issue is if Germany’s logic and decisions are the right ones.

After hesitating on a rescue package for Greece in the spring, which led to a run on the euro, the government of Angela Merkel proposed last month an E.U. treaty change that would make private investors shoulder a good part of any future bailouts. The near instant effect was to terrify the bond markets and exacerbate the fragility of Ireland’s over-indebted banks.