The week the euro went up in flames

As Simon Tilford and Philip Whyte put it last week in an essay for the London-based CER: "A familiar pattern has now set in. Under market duress, leaders hold an emergency summit and announce an agreement designed to restore confidence once and for all. After an initial bout of euphoria, financial markets digest the content of the agreement, conclude that it does not resolve the underlying problems, and the cycle starts all over again. Each agreement buys less time, and the stakes become larger with every summit."