Edward Chancellor in Financial Times February 2 in his column "The Last Word" explains:

"The Euro was created to bring economic stability to Europe.  However, the politicians who promoted European Monetary Union ignored inherent flaws in the projbect.  The credit crisis has exposed these flaws.  As a result, members are facing severe deflation and a quite desperate economic outlook.

"The leading European politicians behind the Euro Project, such as former French President Francois Mitterand weren't much interested in economics in a new book, `The Euro:  The Politics of the New Global Currency' (Yale), David Marsh shows how these politicians brushed aside the concerns of their advisors as they rushed eagerly toward monetary union.  Mr. Mitterand's vision for the single currency, says March, was `based on emotion, psychology and wishful thinking' rather than rational economics."