The Euro’s Chains and Pains

It has been quite a ride of late for Greece and its baffled citizens. There was cash shortage, with pictures of pensioners sobbing beside  barren ATMs, followed by the plebiscite on the latest European Union lifeline, which was rejected. Then came the showdown and, to the amazement of Greeks who thought they rejected one possible deal, the acceptance of a package even more onerous than that originally offered.

All this has been most peculiar, but even more strange is the chorus that insists the present agitation against Greece is an enormous threat to the EU. Why? Could not Greece be offered the option of an ordered exit from the euro? Why can’t Greece join in an orderly manner those EU member states that do not belong to the euro? And why, in the first place, did the treaty that created the euro not contain an exit clause?

These questions generate further questions. Why has there been an ever-growing hostility between northern and southern countries that belong to the…