It's nothing like it. The simple fact is that states that have large differences in productivity / accumulated infrastructure / endowments must either 1 - hav

It's nothing like it. The simple fact is that states that have large differences in productivity / accumulated infrastructure / endowments must either 1 - have floating currencies; 2 - use government purchases to sterilize the currencies ala china; 3 - support permanent financial flows from the more to the less productive states Since the currency union effectively forbids #1 and #2, the only solutions left are #3 or the end of the currency union. This is more-or-less identical to the continued subsidization of the south -- direct fed to state government transfers, eitc, medicare and medicaid, welfare, the military (which is, for many soldiers, essentially a work program), etc -- in the united states by the more productive coastal and northern states. You may also be unaware that Greece has largely never been bailed out: of the so-called bailout so far, more than half the cash went to shaky German and other foreign banks [1]. [1] http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-05-23/merkel-should-know-her-country-has-been-bailed-out-too http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-05-23/merkel-shou...