"The euro has many flaws, but its weakest link is Greece, whose fundamental problem is that for years it spent too much, earned too little and plugged the gap by borrowing in order to enjoy a rich man's lifestyle. It flouted EU rules on the limits to budget deficits; its national accounts were a moussaka of minced statistics, topped with a cheesy sauce of jiggery-pokery. By any legitimate measure, Greece was unworthy of eurozone membership. That it achieved card-carrying status was down to the sleight-of-hand skills of its Brussels fixers and the acquiescence of central bank bean-counters." - Andrew Terry from Bookmarklet

"What was once deemed unthinkable is now, I believe, inevitable: withdrawal from the eurozone of one or more of its member countries. At the bottom end, Greece and Portugal are favourites to be forced out through weakness. At the top end, proposals are already being floated in the Frankfurt press for a new "hard currency" zone, led by Germany, Austria and the Benelux countries. Either way, rich and poor are heading in opposite directions." - Andrew Terry

Perhaps... but the bottom line is the Euro experiment is beginning to fail - in exactly the way the Euro (currency) skeptics feared: weaker economies (with corrupt governmental and business practices) can't keep pace with the stronger economies, requiring the stronger economies to step in, which defeats the purpose of a single currency - Andrew Terry

Germany exports have benefitted from the euro zone, so if you are to make an evaluation of the common currency you have to take in account everything. Euro-skeptics look at the signals they deem interesting as they did from the beginning, no news here. - Aldo Oldo

you picked up on that, too, then? ;-) - Andrew Terry