I loved Cornelius Ryan's book, "
A Bridge Too Far," and the movie too. Today, Paul Krugman likens the Maastricht treaty creating the euro as "
A Money Too Far." An apt analogy. The resources (rather institutions) necessary to make a currency union effective were unavailable to those behind the treaty, just as Montgomery's plan to take Arnhem Bridge was too ambitious given the reality on the ground in Holland. And in both cases, naysayers were ignored.
The extent of Krugman's pessimism is evident:
Many observers now expect the Greek tragedy to end in default; I’m increasingly convinced that they’re too optimistic, that default will be accompanied or followed by departure from the euro.
Hard to see how this ends in a non-tragic way.
