Chris, you keep saying that the argument is over and the Euro is here to stay. The latter MAY be the case, however I haven’t seen anything from you that disputes the blindingly obvious; that it can only survive long term with complete fiscal unity in the Eurozone. Are you implicitly accepting that?
If so then the question has to be asked who will set the budgets and decide the taxes? If it were to be done democratically then all 17 member states would get a vote i.e. effectively dictating Germany’s economic policies. I can’t see that happening any time soon, it would be an anathema to Germany. If on the other hand Germany, by dint of being the largest economy, gets to decide on the economic policies for the other members then that’s democracy out of the window. Are the European nations ready to give up their independence yet?
To make the Euro work again for all its members, Europe will have to be a very different place from what it is now and if that can’t be achieved then the Euro will lurch from crisis to crisis with Germany being asked to pick up the bill every time.
Yes it would be a legal and financial disaster leaving the Euro, I don’t think the legal niceties matter too much when dealing with this crisis and it is already a financial disaster, we just haven’t seen the full extent of it yet. There is no win/win solution here, they are all lose/lose. The only differences between staying or leaving is that the latter will eventually lead to a recovery for the peripheral nations, the former condemns them to eternal austerity.
