It is still in one piece. As they relax this Christmas, the architects and guardians of the euro can at least make that claim. Indeed, despite its annus horribilis, the eurozone is about to expand: Estonia will join on January 1, becoming the 17th member. Such is the fruit of ever-closer union. Angela Merkel must be thrilled. What the euro needs is more Germanys. What it gets – an endless queue of them – is more Irelands: small, open, peripheral European economies, not obviously in need of cheap credit, dangerously vulnerable to euro-induced bubbles.
在這個聖誕期間，歐元的構建者和守護者起碼可以說，歐元區仍然是一個整體。的確，雖然流年不利，歐元區仍將進一步擴大：愛沙尼亞將在1月1日加入，成爲第17個成員國。這是聯盟越來越緊密的成果。安格拉•梅克爾(Angela Merkel)肯定嚇得夠嗆。歐元區需要的是更多像德國這樣的國家，而實際上，排起長隊等候加入的國家，卻與愛爾蘭更爲相似：開放的小型歐洲外圍經濟體，似乎並不需要廉價信貸，但極易受到歐元引發泡沫的衝擊。