Wall Street Journal
May 10, 2011
The euro zone's fiscal crisis has one positive aspect—it has spurred an unprecedented amount of public debate in its 17 member nations, reflecting a level of popular engagement that has been almost entirely absent since the single currency was launched in 1999.
This is proving a major source of confusion for investors, who had grown accustomed to the careful control of the euro-zone message exercised by Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris over the past decade.
But if the euro zone is to survive, it will require the support of a populace that has until now been largely indifferent to its existence. And that can only be secured by talking openly about its faults as well as its merits, of which there are many.
As the crisis enters its second year, the views of Finnish party leaders, Slovak coalition partners, academics, "wise men" and lawmakers, however distant from power, may all matter. Public discourse in the euro zone used to consist of nothing more than a comforting drone, conducted in language that was designed to obscure and suppress any suggestion of conflict. It is now a cacophony, and many are feeling a little bewildered.
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