At root, it is a crisis of “enlargement,” in this case enlargement of the eurozone. Unprecedented effort at fiscal discipline in the 1990’s – helped in Greece by creative accounting – enabled Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain (disobligingly known as the PIGS) to meet the entry criteria in 2002.
1958 年签署的《罗马条约》成立了欧洲经济共同体，成为欧洲的一大进步。然而，建立共同市场的同时却并未成立共同政府，这为日后的种种麻烦埋下了伏笔。自从欧盟东扩至 27 个成员国及其内部 16 个国家组成欧元区之后，虚夸与现实之间的差距进一步拉大了。从历史来看，欧元区许下的种种承诺是它远无法兑现的。