Wall Street Journal
September 12, 2011
Sometimes the really bad news is good.
Jürgen Stark's decision to resign from the board of the European Central Bank, not too long after Axel Weber quit as Bundesbank president, just might put paid to the dithering that has characterized euro-zone policy making for too long. And the equally disturbing news that the Greek economy is in virtual collapse, shrinking by 7.3% in the last quarter, puts more than a little pressure on euro-zone politicians to abandon the notion that press releases are synonymous with action, and austerity with prudence.
Messrs. Stark and Weber have, in effect, put it to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has attempted to do enough, but only just enough, to keep the troubled euro-zone countries afloat, while playing for time that might ensure she can bring her party and coalition partners along with her to a more permanent fix of the euro-zone problem. She knows full well that Germany is heading towards a role most Germans despise: lender of last resort to countries that have failed to get their fiscal houses in order.
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