To sound clichéd, pictures are worth a thousand words. And
these pictures from Boston.com speak to why the Euro is still in trouble.
They capture the protests taking place in Greece, Italy,
Spain, and Portugal. These pictures seem
to indicate the protests in Europe are substantially more intense than anything
we see in the states. Further, they
indicate why any “solution” or “fix” to the problem is met with skepticism.
Any bailout or EU external funding is wrought with
conditions, namely budget targets. The
only way is to get to said targets is to make cuts in benefits (spending) or
raise taxes. The thing about this
austerity (deficit-cutting by lowering spending) is that the people tend not to
like it. And when they don’t like it you
have protests and/or riots like we can see in those pictures.
In short, the political situation in the Eurozone may not
allow for any agreed upon framework to take place. The fallout is anyone’s guess. Again, this points to the difficulties of
having a fractured monetary and fiscal union.
