The European debt crisis: your views

In the past week, there has been much discussion about the European debt crisis. Here are some of the comments from our community: Epanastis25Martiou I'm here in Greece and in conversation with my (normally sane and rational) friends and family, the pattern seems to be one of denial and avoidance of any responsibility. There is plenty of blame for "them" ("them" being democratically elected Greek politicians) and the Germans! This problem will really only start being solved once everyone starts taking collective responsibility! easterman Same old tune. Taxpayers get to stump up while banksters make it away on their toes with bonuses. Greece is not the enemy. Corporate greed and power is the enemy. From illegal resource wars to bailouts for banksters – it's one-way bloody traffic from our bank accounts to theirs courtesy of our embedded revolving door politicians. Democracy my arse. bathandwells It's worth remembering that the EU has done much good. Helped trade, helped lift Europe from the morass of 1945, helped bring in much of Europe, helped cross-border work, helped develop poorer regions, helped bring better governance, helped the former dictatorships of the Med, etc. It's just made the odd cock-up on the way. whitesteps The eurozone needs to learn some basic economics and recognise that you can't have a single currency without a coherent unified political will. As the populations of Europe do not want the latter, you cannot have the former. Let each country have its own currency, and thus its own interest rates and ability to devalue. Anything else is handing endless taxpayer money to bankers and bond holders as part of a failed vanity project. MartinRDB If the euro is collapsing, why is the pound doing worse? If the EU is so undemocratic, why is the UK even less democratic? Do the doom merchants have any credible account for how the euro could "unravel" or a country could leave the euro? I haven't seen anything so far. Ignored by the Europhobes is that, within the Euro area, people actually like the euro. antipodean1 It's not just the EU which has this problem. USA too has a remarkably similar issue – not enough cash in circulation. More liquidity needs to be made available and fiscal disciplines also need to be strengthened, while economies must be restructured to be more efficient, more sustainable and more useful. We need to face up to the fact that western currencies are becoming worth less, and not damage our economies trying to deny it. Together we are stronger. Now is a time to increase co-operation, not fall apart… Scipio1 The eurozone certainly has problems, and the notion that all the countries in the EU can develop to a level already pertaining in the northern bloc is difficult to envisage. Moreover the political leadership has been less than convincing. But Europe must go forward or go back. A break up of the EU would not stop at nation states. Already we have petty regional nationalism in Belgium, Spain, Italy and the UK. Who knows where this process would end – but the ending would certainly be ugly. imperium This crisis has occurred precisely because of the existence of a European superstate, and of a European single currency. Not despite, but because of. We do not need a more united Europe; we need a Europe made up of sovereign nation states with sovereign currencies, free to negotiate individual trade agreements with whom they will, free of the crippling economic fallacies inherent within the notion of a single currency for all of Europe. trevorgleet And all our main political parties are still competing to promise to restore the consumption-driven economic growth which is at the centre of the problem. We've got to get off the growth treadmill. It'll cost us reductions in consumer living standards. But life satisfaction research shows that this needn't make us any less happy. Indeed if we do it by restoring meaningful work, co-operation and connectedness we can live more fulfilled lives too.