Yes, the liabilities of southern Europe’s private sector were speculative and potentially insecure; but the region was part of the eurozone, and thus its governments’ debts were backed by the European Central Bank, which in turn was backed by the governments of France and Germany, which in turn were backed by the willingness of French and German taxpayers to pay for the long-run project of closer European integration. Neither the French nor the Germans, obviously, want to contemplate any possibility of a return to the days when every generation they would kill each other over the question of which language should be spoken by the mayor of Strasbourg (or is it Strassburg?).