Upon reading the title I thought – that might be interpreted a bit weird… I don’t weigh in that often on the future of the Eurozone, other than to say that I think it will continue although large changes will be required.
And that is where I get the ‘hard and soft’ idea from, the marriage of states that formed the Eurozone was between fundamentally different philosophies and the pre-nuptial agreement was weak.
There are broadly three groups, the hard money, financially disciplined (and free market oriented) and competitive nations are the first group. This group is Germany, Finland, Austria, and the Netherlands. Then there is group two who prefer soft money, socialism, statism and weak financial discipline.
Group three is France, they have a whole group all to themselves, because they are in both camps at once but will one day choose between them.
Eurozone breakup is still not something I can fathom, but it has become more probable from what was an outlier two years ago. As the crisis enters it’s 6th year we still don’t seem to …