Redwood: More euro misery

On 2 May, members of the euro helped complete a large bailout for Greece. They did so to avoid a rolling crisis moving the problems on from Greece to other Euroland countries.

Welcoming the announcement, representatives of the member states governments and the European Commission implied Greece alone was in difficulties, and the Greek package would end the crisis of the euro. Over the weekend of 20 and  21 November, the EU and the IMF put together a loan package for Ireland. They acted in haste for fear of the markets, and because once again they worried about contagion. The markets were told the familiar story the problem would not spread. The new discipline allied to the new loan would solve the Irish problem. We need to ask what went wrong? Why did the w...