Europe Still a Mess

Europe of late has demonstrated that it is as big a mess as ever. The Cyprus urgency had just begun to dissipate when Portugal suffered a political crisis over the austerity demanded by EU and IMF aid. Greece failed—again—to take the required steps for its aid. France, also failing to meet EU strictures, turned to partial sales of state-owned firms to raise money. Talk of default and a contagion of problems returned. EU leadership, however, has responded with less anxiety than in the past. Markets are calmer, too. There is a general confidence, not present in past episodes of difficulty, that the common-currency zone will hang together for the foreseeable future. The calm will not last, however, unless the zone’s members use the time bought with confident words and the palliatives of aid to initiate fundamental economic and market reforms.