European shock and awe

by Phil Levy

Foreign Policy
May 11, 2010

Europe's attempt at shock and awe exploded Sunday night, blasting the markets into a Monday of euphoria. Now the dust and debris are settling and we can inspect what just happened. In particular, we can ask whether Europe's big move will solve the problem and what this means for the European Union going forward economically and politically.

To figure out whether it will solve Europe's problem, we first have to decide what the problem is. That, in fact, is at the crux of the matter. There are two very different ways of thinking about the crisis along Europe's periphery (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain -- PIIGS):

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