Switching to a common currency had enormous benefits in terms of reducing the friction associated with trade between nations in the Euro zone. It wasn't a bad

Switching to a common currency had enormous benefits in terms of reducing the friction associated with trade between nations in the Euro zone. It wasn't a bad idea to switch early but at least two glaring mistakes were made with the implementation: 1. The European establishment decreed that no sovereign in the region would ever default on its debts and backed that decree up by allowing banks to hold the debt without allocating capital against it. This was the European equivalent of US rating agencies rubber-stamping toxic mortgage securities with a AAA rating. 2. Member states have been allowed to cheat outrageously on the Masstricht treaty criteria, even before shenanigans like Greece window-dressing its numbers by disguising some debt as currency swaps, without much enforcement. If these errors hadn't been made, they probably wouldn't be in a situation in which member states were allowed to paper over their problems with cheap credit while digging the entire continent into a very dangerous hole.