Quote on Thursday: The Euro: It´s a bad idea. It won´t last"

"The European debt bubble will become larger and the danger increases, that this bubble will burst with a much larger bang than the bang if Greece would have gone default properly" (Hans-Werner Sinn, CEO of the Ifo economy research institute in Munich). He is sure: Only the menace of going default and high interest rates can achieve enough discipline of the deficit spending countries. But Europe has forfeited this instrument with its decision for the financial rescue package. If he is right, the future of the Euro looks gloomy. Rüdiger Dornbusch, an economist who died in 2002, summarized it: "It can´t happen. It´s a bad idea. It won´t last."

(SZ 23.6.10, S.20)