> once the fraud that was perpetrated on Brussels became clear, why weren't they kicked out immediately? It was clear from before the Euro ever started. Every

> once the fraud that was perpetrated on Brussels became clear, why weren't they kicked out immediately? It was clear from before the Euro ever started. Everyone (by which I mean, the elites, analysts, the press, politicians, et al) knew that countries like Greece and Portugal had no business joining the Euro, and were lying through their teeth to get in. Then again, everyone knew that the entire project was founded on lies, cooked books, and ignored rules, sacrificed towards the overriding goal of ever closer union. After letting Greece in with a wink and a nod, why in the world would they have then kicked them out? The fraud, if you want to call it that, was on the voters and taxpayers, not on the people running the EU. And if they kicked them out, how could they justify not kicking out all the other countries who had engaged in blatant trickery, which would be, well, all of them? France engaged in some elaborate budget trickery to get their deficit under the line (swapping future pension obligations for one off payments to make their deficit look low enough)[1], Germany waffled a bit but the moves were accepted. How could they not be? France at least lied to make their deficit pass muster; Germany was in blatant violation from the start (which was meant to preclude their entry, or at least trigger massive fines. Naturally it did neither.) Or in short: It's the old glass houses rule. France, Germany, Italy, etc, were in NO place to demand a strict adherence to the rules in the case of Greece, since by a strict reading of the rules they shouldn't have been in the Euro zone either. The Euro project was inherently political from the start, and politically it needed as many countries to join as possible. Even if that was economic disaster. Edit: A better link[2] about how by the terms of the governing treaties, most Eurozone members did not qualify for entry, including (hilariously) Germany which had too much debt. [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/20/news/20iht-euro.t.html http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/20/news/20iht-euro.t.html [2]: http://www.voxeu.org/article/politics-maastricht-convergence-criteria http://www.voxeu.org/article/politics-maastricht-convergence...