Eurozone maintaining the status quo

As Pete has noted, George Osborne has been making headlines while braving rollercoasters in California. The chancellor’s view that the Eurozone must accept ‘the remorseless logic of monetary union that leads from a single currency to greater fiscal integration’ marks the moment when the British government began to campaign for a two-tier Europe, which would allow Britain to sit on the periphery of the union. No doubt a wry smile will have danced across Bill Cash’s lips, because this arrangement was first envisaged by the Maastricht rebels all those years ago.
 
The Eurozone, however, appears intent to remain on its current course of half measures. Francois Baroin, France’s new finance minister, rejects Osborne’s belief that Eurobonds must be created to quell disquiet on the markets. In a statement made earlier today, Baroin said that the EFSF, the Euro’s emergency bailout fund, would be expanded if necessary to resist contagion.  This merely restates the terms of the deal that was done on Greek debt last