But there is also a lot of meaningless speculation about the disintegration of the Euro as a currency, which is simply unjustified. The Euro will no more ‘fail’ that the dollar will ‘fail’. There is no way that the Eurozone participants could return to their national currencies, which just don’t exist anymore. The idea that the Greeks would return to the Drachma was bizarre. How would it make sense to try to found a new currency precisely at the point that your economy was screwed? What would you back the currency with? And why would Greece’s debtors think that was a good idea?
As is abundantly clear, the crisis in the European Union, which is exacerbated by the economic crisis – but is predated a political crisis of legitimacy – will always lead to a greater degree of institutional integration of the European Union (unless or until such a time that there is a new political movement in Europe, either national or Europe-wide). Already that can be seen in the suspension of the party political process in Greece and Italy, and the substitution of European officials like Mario Monti for an elected government. Make no mistake, this is the slow erosion of democracy in Europe, and its subvention by a Euro-bureaucracy.
Riots? Maybe. But until the demonstrators take on the EU itself, there will be no challenge to its ‘ever greater union’.