Certainly, at some point the French drowning man (Sarkozy or Hollande, same difference) will have to give up the straw of the Franco-German axis.

agreed. there's no 'special relationship' there that bodes well for the rest of europe.

it's either a totally re-organised currency union or fold it, as coppola says. an aspiration people were not mature enough to live up to, history shows us.

once france peels off the tragi-farce will be over, or germany will get a major clue. perhaps higher gas prices through ukraine will stop them lording it too much over the rest of europe.

italy is at snapping point.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty