The NYT described Germany’s insistence that Greece adhere to an austerity plan as being derived from a desire to protect taxpayers. It’s not clear that this is the case. Most of the debt is owed to official lenders who have no need to make demands on Germany’s taxpayers to get funding. (The European Central Bank prints its money.)

Furthermore, more rapid growth in the euro zone will both allow Greece to repay a larger portion of its debt and also improve Germany’s budget situation as well. For this reason, it is hard to see how German taxpayers will derive any benefit from austerity in Greece.