Economist Sinn rattles Merkel laboring to save euro

"Economists like Hans-Werner Sinn have contributed to a climate in which the German government has felt constrained in what it can agree at a eurozone level," says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London.

Sinn’s assertion that Germany is being taken for a ride by its euro-area neighbors has political resonance, Tilford says. It’s one reason, he says, that Merkel has refused to endorse the issuance of bonds backed by all of the euro-area countries and continues to demand a euro-zone-wide fiscal pact to bind the hands of future governments.