Eurozone: Throw away the bad apples

Updated: 2012-07-25 19:00

(chinadaily.com.cn)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按钮 0

The interest rate on Spain's 10-year national debt has hit 7.5 percent and Italy's is at 6.36 percent, while the Netherlands and Germany are both at about only 1 percent.

Eurozone policy is to let strong economies like Germany save the weak ones. But Germany's economic health may not be that strong. As a result, the bad apples are likely to spoil the good ones in the barrel.

Peeling the bad apples is an alternative plan for the eurozone. But if the bad apples are too spoiled to peel, the eurozone will end up with several worthless apple cores.

Greece is a case in point. Spain and Italy are much larger bad apples than Greece, which has already drained considerable financial resources from other EU members.

The value of the apples lies in the good apples, not the bad ones, or the barrel. The eurozone should be a dynamic system, not a rigid one.

The last resort for eurozone decision-makers is not peeling bad apples, but removing them from the barrel. If the bad apples can then heal themselves in a new environment, the barrel will be open to them.

Translated By Li Yang from 21st Century Business Herald