Solving the Euro crisis - objections to "printing" money

I agree. The banks like all banks all over the world, are very connected by investment and obligation well beyond their borders. The problem is, most of the regulations about banks are local (national) and so the first level of repair comes from their government - which yes, has limited fiscal creativity.

The moral hazard is that Greece, for example, has seriously overpromised outlays - pensions and govenrment employees with legendary generosity; and seriously underenforced income - taxes enforcement is deliberately excessively lax. All that needs to be fixed, not for moral reasons, but to balance the income-vs-payout situation. The alternative is not acceptable - that the rest of europe keep (over)paying Greece’s obligations. All the bond-buying in the word will not solve this. (Or rather, that’s what it will take - buy all the bonds in the world, and then some…)

In a real world with separate currencies, Greece would solve this problem by paying a 50,000-drahcma pension with 50,000 drachmas, but eventually a litre of petrol would cost 1,000 drachmas. Inflation or devaluation would handle the imbalance. With the euro, the Greek politicians need the testicular fortitude to make cuts. So far, the diet starts tomorrow. Worse yet, the governmental infrastructure of Greece not only allowed and encouraged the imbalance, but apparently lied about the depth of it.

I agree, I have not seen any effort to either fix the problems with government spending nor to reign in banks that go cray and endanger the economy.

Those that do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, as my high school teacher would say.