Euro crisis

Watching the ALP’s strange attempts to solve its leadership crisis last week, it appeared that Coalition strategists could not have written a better script. There is only one consolation for Labor: When it comes to self-destruction, nothing beats the European Union.

The haircut for depositors of Cypriot banks is not the first time the EU has thrown its own rulebook overboard. That would have been bad enough. What is worse though is that it sends a strong signal to anyone doing business in any of the eurozone’s struggling economies: get out while you still can!

All the years of muddling through the European crisis have only produced sticky-tape solutions. They can hold the edifice of monetary union together for a while, but it is entirely foreseeable that it won’t last.

Just when many commentators thought the euro crisis was over, Italy’s political earthquake has put it back on the agenda. The problem is not so much that it is practically impossible to form a stable government with different majorities in the two houses of parliament. The real issue is that the anti-austerity forces in Italy have won a large majority.

As it turns out, even countries smaller than Greece can still turn into major headaches for Europe’s policymakers. The country in question is the island nation of Cyprus.

In case you have not noticed it, the euro crisis is over. It must be because EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, ECB President Mario Draghi and French President François Hollande all said so over the past six months.

Because of all his personal failings, it is unlikely the Italians will give Berlusconi a fourth chance to lead their country. But he will at least trigger a debate on the benefits of Italy’s continued eurozone membership, which may well end up with a divorce.

One of the most oft-quoted sayings in economics is Herbert Stein’s famous dictum that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. It is so often quoted because it is logically true. It certainly holds for the construction of the eurozone and the design of those policies to rescue it.