Nobel laureates: Germany leaving eurozone may be best

THE finest economic minds in the world believe the eurozone will survive its crippling debt crisis, but think that if the bloc splinters it would make more sense for powerhouse Germany and not stricken Greece to break away.

With markets on edge over the huge debt mountains that built up in Europe and the US during the global financial crisis, 17 economics Nobel Prize winners gathered this week on the island of Lindau on Lake Constance in southern Germany to discuss the discipline.

Among them are Joseph Stiglitz, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize for work on how markets cope with asymmetric information, Myron Scholes who won in 1997 for his work on derivatives, and Robert Mundell, a winner in 1999 for his analysis of optimum currency areas.