Paul Krugman: Apocalypse Fairly Soon

Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union
without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both
economic and, arguably even more important, political — could be huge.

This doesn’t have to happen; the euro (or at least most of it) could still be saved. But this will require that
European leaders, especially in Germany and at the European Central Bank, start acting very differently
from the way they’ve acted these past few years. They need to stop moralizing and deal with reality; they
need to stop temporizing and, for once, get ahead of the curve.