What the Euro Has Wrought

From today's Open Europe news summary:

Handelsblatt reports that according to the SPD, Germany has a direct exposure of €310bn to the eurozone crisis, in the form of guarantees, although the party’s budgetary spokesman Carsten Schneider notes that in the event of a eurozone break-up the risks could top €1 trillion.

As of the end of August, the Bundesbank had a credit at the ECB of Euros 751 billion. This amount grows each day as Spaniards, Greeks, Italians, etc. move their euros to German banks. But, German banks do not receive real resources from the Spanish, Greek, or Italian banks in exchange for accepting these new deposits. They receive a promise from the ECB! This is the infamous TARGET2 system described by Dr. Philipp Bagus in this article.