Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps because the claim "The way EU works is by letting monopolies in a few west European countries expand their market to east" is clearly ludicrous as a summary of how the EU works? I mean, the EU - ignoring the name changes over the years - had existed for over 30 years before the fall of the Iron curtain and nearly 50 years before admitting new members from the the East. The idea that the whole thing was set-up…
If it didn't work this way, protectionism wouldn't exist. There are various economics models which show Germany has benefited the most from creation of EU Sure countries in middle of Europe and east are improving their baseline but it's nothing compared to what Germany has achieved. Germany is effectively china of EU. It's funny to see the same people who oppose China's currency manipulation are in favour of EU I sug…
Germany was against monetary union in Europe, they saw it as giving away their ability to be fiscally conservative. This is of course what happened with the ECB finally printing their way out of the Euro debt crisis.
The fact that Germany retained their manufacturing capacity and still takes pride in it is the reason they are an export economy. The economics of the Euro are just working for them rather than against them.
Other countries threw away their manufacturing capacity for a service sector, most notably Britain which centralised their economy in London.