“Just weeks to save the euro”

Jeremy Warner, formerly of The Independent, says that Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, is running out of time to save the euro, before asking number 831 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No: Will Germany let him?

Warner’s headline says that Draghi has “weeks”, but his article says only that it must be done “soon”. Warner’s analysis is absolutely right, but the period over which it will be realised is also interesting.

The Leading Articles blog has done a brilliant analysis using Google searches to discover that, on the internet, “three months” is actually the most popular deadline by which “to save the euro”, at 133,000 mentions, against 93,000 for “one week”, which is the second most popular.

When I said that I thought Warner’s timetable was wrong, Jonathan Portes, the National Institute economist whom I respect, asked: “Too optimistic or too pessimistic? Arguably it’s days …”

Well, the last time I put a definite date on it, 5 July (congratulations to Roger Bootle, by the way), it passed with the eurozone’s leaders obeying only the instruction on the poster.

Poster via Fabrizio Goria

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• Sharon Ann Accountant

  If any of these “experts” was convinced the euro wasn’t going to survive, they
  would mortgage their house for a loan in euros, spend all the money now,
  and pay the loan back when the euro was worthless.

• http://www.facebook.com/vinny.jones.9277 Vinny Jones

  i hope it does and the sooner the better then slippery sid cameron might give us the referendum to get out of the corrupt cash cow of the eu then we could rebuild our once proud country and trade all over the world
  vote UKIP

• http://twitter.com/sufc21 SUFC

  The EU is yet another rich men’s club. Better off out of it.

• greggf

  The euro is a symptom of the crisis like the gold standard was a symptom of the 1930s crisis, and Gold is still around today – and in demand…!

• Guest

  Yet another great idea of the liberal left goes up in flames. When will they learn to just leave well enough alone? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Immigra tion, multi-cultishism and the EU super-state, everything liberals touch turns to custard.

• Susan G.

  What? Like our communist banking system? Admittedly, you made me laugh. ” ironandy” take a look at the legacy of your ” Iron Lady” and the greed and incompetence and deceit of the culture she championed and that has resulted in such calamity. Perspective, dear boy.