The Euro Was a Bad Idea From the Start

After frantic eleventh-hour negotiations and continent-wide hand-wringing, eurozone authorities and Greece’s new left-wing government have reached a deal. If you’re surprised, you shouldn’t be. A deal was in the cards from the beginning for one simple reason: Ultimately, neither the Greek government nor Germany and other euro member states could risk triggering a financial crisis by cutting off Greek banks.

Financial stability in the 19-country currency area has been preserved — at least for now. But patching up the situation has not removed the key question of where to go from here. There is a lot of “austerity fatigue” in Europe right now. That’s understandable, but it shouldn’t be allowed to distort the debate and allow Europe to dodge the much-needed thorough assessment of the entire euro project: Does it still make sense, given its constraints and limits? What should be the way forward? And was it even a good idea to begin with? …. http://foreignpolicy.com