So whatever Merkel says about this being an existential crisis requiring greater EU integration, expect progress to be slow.  Most of the problems will have to be resolved by the Irish/Greeks/PIIGS themselves.  Don't borrow from international markets if you don't want them to rule your country...seems to be the long term lesson.

Maybe Greece should have simply defaulted on its debt and taken the German banks down with it. That would have focused the mind of the German public on who is really being bailed out.

Now, this is clearly an existential crisis for the EU because the EU is after all predicated on a single international market for Goods, Services, Capital and Labour. Greece cannot insulate itself from the international markets without quitting the EU because it cannot institute capital controls between itself and the rest of the EU, as well as the EU being fully on board with the WTO's demand for removing barriers to capital flows between the EU and the rest of the world.


By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan