<blockquote>'..the Europeans had a tendency to betray their own ideals.'
- Der Spiegel,
How a Good Idea Became a Tragedy, 10/05/2011</blockquote>
'..mostly on borrowed money..'<blockquote>'The German-French initiative effectively did away with the Stability and Growth Pact, which the Germans had forced their partners to sign. The consequences were fatal. If the two biggest economies in the euro zone weren't abiding by the rules, why should anyone else?
..
The euro countries, after having built themselves brave new economic worlds since the late 1990s, mostly on borrowed money, were already in a deepening debt hole, which was still almost unnoticed and certainly vastly underestimated. They were like a mouse that is overjoyed to have spotted a piece of cheese in a trap, without noticing that by eating the cheese it will set off the trap.'
- Der Spiegel,
How the Euro Zone Ignored Its Own Rules, 10/06/2011</blockquote>
Context '..a “monstrous” (according to Clemente de Diego) legal institution..'<blockquote>
'..At its heart it is a crisis of the fractionally reserved banking system..''..economics as a science which is always based on human beings..''..a truly stable financial and monetary system..'Banking Reform</blockquote>