James K. Galbraith — The Future of Europe

The fact of technocratic dictatorship within the euro is plain to everybody.….

These political consequences will keep the euro under strain, deepened by the ongoing failure of the neoliberal economic regime. It therefore seems likely that the Euro will, at some point, in some country, crack. The decision to initiate a breakup could come from the left or the right. In any case such a decision will destroy, as events in Greece have destroyed, the previous political structures. A breakup, if it goes badly, could make things worse. What will happen to the European Union after that, is anyone's guess.…

Can the euro be reformed? The Greek case will persuade many that it cannot. And if the alternative is disorderly and uncontrolled exits, precipitated by countries in extreme straits and political upheaval, then it might be wise to prepare some new system, one that might, at the right moment, replace the euro with a more flexible, but still-managed, multi-currency scheme. This is not an outlandish thought—after all the gold standard that collapsed in 1933 was replaced in 1944 by just such a system, devised at Bretton Woods. The trick is to get the job done without the intervening chaos.