[credit: Martyn Turner, Irish Times]
Doubts about the political settlement of the European Union's financial crisis are already beginning to remerge only one week after the summit in which all the nations except the UK agreed in principle to closer fiscal coordination. Moody's said the summit "offers few new measures, and does not change our view that risks to cohesion of the euro area continue to rise". Those risks were reflected in the bond market, as the cost of borrowing continued to rise. The ECB is apparently willing to use its cruel leverage to force austerity on the so-called profligate Mediterranean countries by slashing bond purchases. The hard money policies of the Anglo-saxons means the end of the euro zone, eventually. Some observers see the beginning of a bank run in Europe as investors remove their funds to safer ground, and banks begin paying "through the nose" for dollars from corporate sources.