The German policymakers remain pigheadedly opposed to the stimulus the euro area needs. Even as their own economy has stalled, they are determined to balance the budget in 2015. They want to force France to cut its deficit, they show little interest in a euro-wide investment scheme, and their opposition explains why the ECB is going so slowly with a bond-buying scheme to address deflation. The quantitative easing that markets expect is months off, if it happens at all.