A couple of weeks ago Edward Harrison noted that the structure of all "bailout" agreements were collections of bilateral agreements between the country being rescued and the individual countries banding together to make the rescue. He maintained that this was due to insistence that all funds be traceable back to individual countries and suggested that this was so that the debts would survive even if the euro-zone did not. It would also be a mechanism to prevent the emergence of any super-national agency which could make commitments to which member states might individually object. This is clearly consistent with what we are seeing.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."