Vanity and Venality: The European Impasse
Susan Watkins, 29 August 2013
All quiet on the euro front? Seen from Berlin, it looks as though the continent is now under control at last, after the macro-financial warfare of the last three years. A new authority, the Troika, is policing the countries that got themselves into trouble; governments are constitutionally bound to the principles of good housekeeping. Further measures will be needed for the banks – but all in good time. The euro has survived; order has been restored. The new status quo is already a significant achievement. Seen from the besieged parliaments of Athens and Madrid, the single currency has turned into a monetary choke-lead.