Europe's defunct idealism is like Munich all over again | Simon Jenkins

The blindness that afflicts Europe's leaders on the euro and austerity is straight from the 1930s

Europe's financial crisis is acquiring the stench of Munich. No, it is not Nazi Germany. But it is the same ceaseless meetings and pretend deals, the same flying here and there and getting nowhere, the same refusing to acknowledge catastrophe on the horizon, hoping someone else will take a tough decision.

In 2008 the financial spotlight was on Washington. Banks were rescued, but not the American...