The Euromess

Europe is in deep crisis — because its proudest achievement, the single currency adopted by most European nations, is now in danger. More than that, it’s looking increasingly like a trap. Ireland, hailed as the Celtic Tiger not so long ago, is now struggling to avoid bankruptcy. Spain, a booming economy until recent years, now has 20 percent unemployment and faces the prospect of years of painful, grinding deflation. The tragedy of the Euromess is that the creation of the euro was supposed to be the finest moment in a grand and noble undertaking. …But the architects of the euro…chose to ignore the mundane difficulties a shared currency would predictably encounter.