House of cards

or the domino principle if you wish, referring to a situation in which the collapse of one part of a structure has the end result of the next part falling until the whole structure collapses. In the case of the Euro it was (and is) Greece, however the warning signs are now showing that Italy or Spain is now about to go under too, rapidly followed by Portugal and possibly Ireland as their reckless borrowing based on the strength of the steady German and other Northern European states comes home to roost as they now simply cannot pay off their debts, or carry on the way they were doing.
Of course our banks are up to their necks in it, though fortunately although we aren't in the Eurozone, if our economy wobbles we can at least re-value our currency, something Greece, Italy or Spain cannot..
Express.

SHARES in British banks plunged today amid fears the Eurozone debt crisis is set to spread to Italy and Spain. Jittery market traders ditched shares in banks across Europe in a huge sell-off.
British banks were among the worst hit with Barclays, which has major exposure to both Italy and the Iberian peninsula, down nearly 5 per cent at one stage.
Taxpayer-backed Lloyds was down 3 per cent and Royal Bank of Scotland down 1 per cent.
The FTSE 100 Index fell 100 points, or 1.7 per cent, today with banks among the biggest fallers. Meanwhile, the Dax in Germany and the CAC 40 in France fell more than 2 per cent.
Britain’s exposure to the Italian economy amounted to £43 billion at the end of March, according to Bank of England figures.
UK banks and investment houses risking losses of £7.9 billion if the Italian government defaults on its debts and a further £5.7 billion if Italian banks collapse.

Of course, the ultimate horror of it is, is that governments might move in to shore up the banks with our money (again) and if you thought the national debt was bad now (see counter on the left), just wait and see what it will be like if or when our so called leaders have finished with trying to put right what simply should be left to sort itself out.
The problem is a matter of pride to certain EU apparatchiks, they simply cannot allow their prestige "currency" symbol of all that the EU is about fail, yet if anything should be obvious, you cannot buck the market. The Euro is doomed to fail simply because there are nations in it who do not belong to it, who falsified their economic standings to be a part of it and borrowed like hell to cover their outstanding costs as prices rose, retirement ages fell but productivity remained the same.
The fall is inevitable now, the only thing to wonder about now is how painful the leaders of the EU make it, for all of us.