A couple of years ago, this news would have been unthinkable. Now it doesn't even make the front page. Even Failygraph hacks are predicting it, eight years after we said it would happen in our book.

There are very few truly free things in this world, but saying "I told you so" is one of them, so we might as well enjoy it while we can. Zerohedge paints the picture of decline. It has Jim Reid of Deutche Bank asking: Should we get excited ahead of the treaty changes? The answer is that we are undoubtedly slowly moving closer to the start of a path towards fiscal union.

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Glad to join you in your feelings and to see you back on your ever excellent form, after your op. What a present that would make, by goodness. This is the sort of stuff of very pleasant dreams! http://tgr.ph/tAv5fi

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Coincidentally I was speculating idly what odds I might get from a bookie for €uro collapse within a given period. If the DM is right I didn't expect odds as short as 50/50 or within the next 6 weeks.

Dr. North

I know you don't have much time for TPA but this was from their regular emails that I receive.

November’s Pin-Up is North East Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, who has put country and constituency before loyalty to his party or the Coalition this month in apportioning some of the blame for the closure of the Alcan aluminium smelter in Northumberland to the Government for its obsession with green taxes. He has also been refreshingly honest in calling for Greece to default on its debt and leave the euro, whilst also opposing any increase in the EU budget.

Pity he is a bit behind the curve about Alcan as you covered it as it happened. I wonder if Callanan will quit his party and become an Independent?

Yes, being alive is quite a good present! A collapsed euro is a nice also-ran.

The bigger problem is the partial collapse, where the debtor countries that drop out of the euro end up devaluing, but the original debt remains denominated in euros. This was the scenario posited by Connolly - one for which there is no answer.

Highly-paid MEP points up Alcan, more than two years after the event and becomes November pin-up!

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... enemy.html

I'm shocked. Mind you, that is about par for the course for TPA.

50:50 is not a surprise. It either will still exist by Christmas or it won't. The man is simply trying to sound more clever than he is.

The Thunderer, is running a story about British Banks being told to batten down the hatches and prepare for EZ default - Greece likely, it will happen over a weekend, we await a mood of austere judgement without schadenfreude but secure in the knowledge that we knew it would end in tears.......................

Or, will Germany step in and temporarily bolster the euro [I don't see it myself because] - even if they did, the underlying causes,ie, like parallel lines the impossibility of European economic convergence will still remain - Greece and Germany cannot ever come together and blend.

A German exit from the euro is rapidly becoming the Unthinkable meets the Inevitable in Economy-Death-Match.
(With soundtrack by Wagner)

Aye, I can probably guess which musical piece as well, having said that, most of Wilhelm Richard's works lend themselves to great 'storms' and surging violent emotions.

It has become apparent that the eurozone leaders and EU has been guilty of complacency(among many other things).It is as if they have become so concieted with their own worthiness and power that they thought they were all somehow above the normal restrictions placed on the rest of us mere mortals.

They still seem to think they still have time to dawdle to some kind of consensus,this is despite the fact they have been defeated at every turn to address the economic crisis that has been unfolding before their eyes for quite some time.They look a like a overweight punch drunk boxer with the far fleeter footed markets landing blow after blow,if it were a boxing match the referee would be stopping the fight as the eurozone is obviously no longer capable of defending itself.These self opiniated, pompous eurocrats are getting a very hard lesson in life from the real deal in the business world.

You can't buck the market.................(forever).

Sadly I suspect we are as well!

It will be good to get the inevitable over with, but I dread to think what the cost will be for ordinary folk. Alas, the kicking of the problem many miles down the road means that an awful lot of brownstuff will be blown around rather freely and will doubtless stick to most of us.)

Satan envied Christ his Christian followers, so he created islam. Then Satan envied the USA and its success so he created the EU. There's a pattern beginning to develop.

All I want for Christmas is a mass turning to Jesus Christ across the UK, singing songs of worship to the Creator of the world who entered it as a little baby in a cold hovel so as to save it.
Bad as things are, at the moment the UK today is better than life and legal system in 5BC to 1 AD.
Oh Come Let us Adore Him Christ The Lord. Jesus is still officially King of Great Britain under The Coronation Oath. Jesus Christ is not of course referred to in the EU Constitution aka Lisbon Treaty.

However turning to the Euro, am I wrong that it launched in practice in January 1 2002 ? So 10 year anniversary is looming ? Or was that when Ireland joined The Euro ? Given the choice, do you think they would join it again ?

They are going to act politically to the last ... that tripartite meeting between France, Italy and Germany is highly significant ... this is the "big three" out of the original Six. They are going back to their roots.