The insane thing about this is that certain German[0] economists have always been very vocal about these things -- both the implications of the trade deficit, particularly within the Euro zone, and the wage dumping or wage restraint as it's commonly referred to here.

These were fairly prominent figures and all of this has been part of the local nationwide political dialogue years before there was any debt/banking/Euro crisis. Nothing happened.

[0] And others, everywhere, I'm sure, but I'm making a statement about Germany here.