Unconscious Irony?

This whole euro business is becoming a farce. Mrs Merkel is reported as saying a treaty change is required to enable the imposition of a european debt brake and for EU institutions to be suitably equipped with powers so that rules can be enforced and fines imposed if they are not complied with. This clearly involves the loss of national control over its own economy by each member of the eurozone. France on the other hand seems to be saying that it will be the governments of each member which will negotiate the terms of fiscal union, decide how it is to operate thereafter and how it is to be policed, that any other solution would be undemocratic. In other words the Germans and the French are far apart on this issue. Whether France's stance would require a treaty change I'm not sure but there are those who claim that the current euro crisis could be solved simply by the ECB printing money, that the ECB is not constrained in any way from doing so and that although fiscal union thereafter makes sense there is no need to set it up now to solve the crisis. Fiscal union could therefore be put in place at other than breakneck speed. See for example Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's article here. In the meantime certain Central Banks have entered the fray to offset the inter bank lending squeeze caused by the euro crisis and which was one of the symptoms of the global credit crunch that began in 2007. Simon Miller has written an interesting article on this point in The Commentator here. It is the view of many, including myself, that Germany has done well out of the euro as the euro allowed it to sell its cars at a lower price than it would have done if it had stuck with the D-mark. This economic advantage for Germany has resulted in economic disaster for the southern countries of the EU and Germany should thus be prepared to do something to help them. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard doesn't agree with this although I do see the sense of and agree with his argument that Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Finland should leave the euro - see his argument here. With the current euro fiasco, from which none other than the eurosceptics come out well, it is curious timing to say the least of it that the ECB would launch a patronising video in praise of the euro. Unconscious irony or what? You can view the video on Daniel Hannan's blog here.