As the Group of 20 meets to seek common ground on protectionism, this year’s euro crisis will hover over their deliberations. The crisis that erupted in Greece has again exposed the fragility of a key element of currency-pooling arrangements: the important value created by a pooling of interests tends to be distributed disproportionately in favour of the financially less collegial members of the pool. Thus, unless restrained, too often, some members will try to exploit their advantage, as Greece brazenly did in recent years.
