European leaders can still avoid the apocalypse, but only if they act boldly and quickly
THE end is nigh. Olli Rehn, the European economic commissioner, says the euro zone has ten days to save itself (so what exactly will happen on December 12th?). Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, says he fears German paralysis more than German power (or Russian missiles). Barack Obama says the euro zone poses the greatest risk to America's well-being. Having once spurned the IMF, euro-zone leaders beg for its help. In European chancelleries the talk is of who should be the elect ones. Will it be the 27 members of the EU, or just the 17 that are in the euro zone? Or, if even that is impossible, could the six AAA-rated members of the euro zone bind themselves together?
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The horsemen approach”
From the December 3rd 2011 edition
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