Three options for the embattled euro

The euro experiment now looks doomed to failure. But letting the single currency collapse amid chaos would be disastrous. Matthew Lynn suggests three ways of quietly putting it to rest.

There are two interesting questions to be asked about the euro right now. Does it have any chance of surviving in its current form? And, if not, how would you go about breaking up the single currency?

The euro can collapse in two ways. It can fall apart suddenly overnight, in a chaotic scramble in which every country looks after itself. Or it can be split up in an orderly, organised way, in which the currency is slowly laid to rest with the minimum possible disruption to the euro area's economy.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.