Germans are tiring of being on the hook for a growing list of European Union bailouts, with their country the bloc's de facto economic leader and pocketbook, MSNBC reported. "Everyone is ready to help the big banks. For small people like me there is nothing," one Berliner said. By far the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany has led the charge in bailing out ailing ones, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has imposed her vision of fiscal austerity on the zone as a condition for E.U. bailout money. Germans are now as weary of the bailouts as Greeks and Spaniards are of the austerity mantra. But a Pew Research Center poll out last month found a broad majority of Germans have a favorable opinion of the E.U., and Germany is the only member nation where most people, 59 percent, think E.U. membership has strengthened its economy. Germany was still struggling to reintegrate itself into Europe when it joined the E.U. just after German reunification.
