Germany Brushes Off Warning Over Rating.

“Europe is sleepwalking toward a disaster of incalculable proportions,” the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a group of prominent economists funded largely by the billionaire financier George Soros, wrote in a new report .

The report urged countries with stronger economies, like Germany, to accept greater short-term “burden sharing” for the good of all. “Absent this collective constructive response, the euro will disintegrate,” the group wrote.

In issuing a “negative” outlook for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg late Monday, Moody’s Investors Service cited what it said was an increased risk that those triple-A countries will have to bear the cost of propping up Spain and possibly even Italy.

Moody’s also pointed to what it said was a greater danger that Greece will leave the euro and “set off a chain of financial-sector shocks and associated liquidity pressures for sovereigns and banks that policymakers could only contain at a very high cost.”

In response, the German Finance Ministry said the short-term risks were “not new” and emphasized the country;s determination to keep its own fiscal house in order

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/business/global/daily-euro-zone-watch.html?_r=1&hp