Kicking the euro crisis can down the road

Today brought yet more reminders of why the eurozone can’t carry on like this much longer. Youth unemployment in Spain and Greece is above 50 per cent – a generation being crucified on a cross of euros – 163 billion euros left Spain in the first five months of the year, and the Greek deputy finance minister is warning that the country’s ‘cash reserves are almost zero’.

So far, the eurozone has managed to find a way to kick the can just far enough down the road. But this is becoming increasingly difficult. As the increasingly desperate messages from Athens make clear, if the country isn’t given another bailout it will simply run out of money.

The Germans, though, seem increasingly prepared to accept this. The post-war German political class has long had three great aims: sound money, peace and unity in Europe and political stability at home. The euro crisis has always pitched the first two of these objections against each other.