''An unprepared Europe has taken an inordinately
long time in dealing with the debt, as a currency without a state is a
contradiction. But despite many 'unthinkable' remedies being adopted,
Europe has to be more coherent and aggressive in tackling the eurozone
crisis because time is running out, writes Loukas Tsoukalis.
Loukas Tsoukalis is Professor at
the University of Athens and President of the Hellenic Foundation for
European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and a member of the World Economic
Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Europe.
Europe has taken an inordinately long time in dealing with the debt
overhang after the bursting of the biggest bubble since 1929, and the
resulting cost is very big indeed.
The reasons are many and complex: a highly decentralized decision
making system having great difficulties in coping with a big crisis that
criss-crosses national borders, growing economic divergence between
member countries accompanied with a rise in populism within and a loss
of trust between them, and the enormous difficulty in reaching an
agreement on how to distribute pain in the adjustment to a post-bubble
world among debtors, bank stakeholders and taxpayers, and even more so
between countries. Who pays the bill?..''
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