Euro Drama: Is the Euro Going to Last?

While we were in Ireland, we saw newspapers and flyers asying it was a "dark day for the euro." We were wondering what this meant, as it seemed a bit ominous. The European Union, particularly the eurozone, the seventeen European countries that are currently using the euro, are struggling to stay together as a political and economic union. Five countries in the eurozone, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy (go us!), and Portugal are currently in bankruptcy or are very close to it, causing the euro as a currency to fluctuate too much. A lot of European banks are going bankrupt, and many European governments are also struggling. Italy has just recently changed prime ministers, from Berlusconi to Mario Monti, and Monti is trying to instill economic reform.

This doesn't seem to be helping. Angela Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France are the forerunners for trying to help keep the European Union while still keeping the euro. Other countries, like the United States and especially the United Kingdom are voting for the European Union to no longer use the euro, as in the long run, the world economy would function better with more currencies and it would be easier to help the bankrupt countries, especially Greece and Italy. The United States has its own share of problems too, given our national debt has increased to scary numbers in the past year or so, and the dollar continues to inflate. America and Europe are both not in a great place at the moment, and some economists are saying that we could experience a second Great Depression if our leaders don't step it up a notch. Maybe the Mayans predicting the end of an era at the end of 2012 wasn't so far off...