Few other countries around the world have a reputation for fiscal prudence to match Germany’s. In times of instability investors flee to the safe ground of German government bonds. An anchor of this stability is a clause in the constitution that forbids the government from spending “on pump.”

But is that law fit for the world that Russia dragged Europe into on February 24th? Or, as critics claim, is is a “straight jacket” that will destroy business and create mass unemployment if enforced over the coming year?