The eurozone’s grand bargain: Political pain without economic gain?

Ever since the eurozone crisis broke out in late 2009, European leaders have sought to reconcile two mutually incompatible objectives: the need to restore market confidence in the zone's indebted periphery; and the unbending refusal of creditor countries in the core to turn the zone into a 'transfer union'. The solution they have come up with - a 'grand bargain' announced to great fanfare at their summit in late March - attempts to square the circle. But it is far from certain that the deal will succeed in restoring confidence in the periphery. It could instead increase political and economic costs across the Eurozone further down the road.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: EU agrees incomplete financial package http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-agrees-incomplete-financial-package/

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