'Germans Should Be Afraid' of Economic Collapse

Moody's cut to the outlook of Germany's top credit rating came as a serious blow to the country's confidence this week. German commentators on Wednesday don't seem particularly surprised by the change, but warn of worse things to come. 
Credit ratings agency Moody's on Monday slashed its outlook for the creditworthiness of not only Germany, but also of the Netherlands and Luxembourg to "negative" from "stable."

Though Moody's maintained its triple-A ratings for all three countries, it said the increasingly uncertain outlook stemming from the European debt crisis was behind the changes. The unsettling move followed controversy over comments made by German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Philipp Rösler, who on Sunday expressed his skepticism that Greek reforms would succeed. He also said a Greek exit from the euro zone has "long since lost its horrors."
The bad news continued to pour in on Wednesday, with new figures out from the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research showing Germany's business climate index dropped for the third time in a row in July, once again due to the European debt crisis.

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-press-on-moody-s-cut-to-german-credit-outlook-a-846322.html