Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Any other business | 1 October 2011

Hang on to your popcorn – this could be the final reel of the euro disaster movie

issue 01 October 2011

Hang on to your popcorn – this could be the final reel of the euro disaster movie

The good news is we’re in a new phase of the euro crisis. The bad news is we don’t know how it’s going to end.

In every good disaster movie, there’s a moment when bickering bureaucrats who have failed to tackle the threat — epidemic, earthquake, invasion — are sidelined to make way for the maverick (and unkillable) hero or heroine. A classic example comes in Independence Day (1993) with the sacking of spineless secretary of defense Nimzicki and the triumph of the computer nerd played by Jeff Goldblum, who figures out how to zap giant alien spacecraft. Now it’s happening for real, as bickering Eurocrats are elbowed aside by monetary special forces, no doubt with a wacky professor in tow.

BBC reporters have started pronouncing ‘default’ as ‘dee-fault’, as though their dialogue coach is Tommy Lee Jones.

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