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A Grimm tale of euro-integration

The Economist
February 18, 2010

IN POLITICS beware of any analysis as neat and tidy as a fairy tale. This week the story concerns the euro and whether Greece will be saved by its 15 siblings in the single currency. The tale goes as follows. The euro suffered from a birth defect. Like bad fairies around the crib of a princess, the euro’s founders blessed a currency union that contained the seeds of its own doom; unlike other big monetary unions (eg, America), the euro is not an economic union, and still less a political union. For its first 11 years the euro grew and gained admirers. But now the curse has struck. The markets are attacking Greece, its weakest member.
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