LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Mobilising an army takes on such
a momentum of its own that a point of no return is eventually
reached. So it may be with the euro zone crisis: before long,
the slide towards break-up of the single currency might prove
impossible to reverse.

Even as global markets rallied on Monday on talk that a
grand plan to save the euro was finally taking shape, more and
more researchers are squarely broaching the alternative outcome
of the currency’s disintegration.

LONDON (Reuters)- From credit bottlenecks in eastern Europe to slower growth in China, delays in tackling the euro zone’s debt crisis are causing ever-greater economic and financial damage well beyond the borders of the 17-nation bloc.

As politicians dither over how to share the costs of cleaning up the mess and preventing a recurrence, concern is mounting among policy advisers and academics that Europe could be condemned to several years of sluggish growth as excess debts are gradually worked off.

LONDON (Reuters)- From credit bottlenecks in eastern Europe to slower growth in China, delays in tackling the euro zone’s debt crisis are causing ever-greater economic and financial damage well beyond the borders of the 17-nation bloc.

As politicians dither over how to share the costs of cleaning up the mess and preventing a recurrence, concern is mounting among policy advisers and academics that Europe could be condemned to several years of sluggish growth as excess debts are gradually worked off.

LONDON (Reuters) – Correcting the economic imbalances underlying the euro zone’s debt crisis will demand years of austerity from the likes of Italy and Spain. It could also require a sea change in German economic thinking to accept stronger domestic demand and higher inflation.

Beyond the urgent steps needed to keep the euro zone together, countries on the bloc’s periphery face a daunting task to increase domestic productivity and restore external competitiveness lost since the launch of the single currency by bringing their unit labour costs down closer to German levels.

LONDON (Reuters) – Correcting the economic imbalances underlying the euro zone’s debt crisis will demand years of austerity from the likes of Italy and Spain. It could also require a sea change in German economic thinking to accept stronger domestic demand and higher inflation.

Beyond the urgent steps needed to keep the euro zone together, countries on the bloc’s periphery face a daunting task to increase domestic productivity and restore external competitiveness lost since the launch of the single currency by bringing their unit labor costs down closer to German levels.

LONDON (Reuters) – Even if the euro zone manages to relieve the immediate financial pressures threatening it, weaker members in particular look set to keep paying a heavy economic price to tackle the imbalances at the root of the bloc’s debt crisis.

The prevailing orthodoxy in the 17-member zone, shared by the European Commission and bond market vigilantes, is that the burden of adjustment must fall squarely on countries with high external deficits, including Italy, rather than surplus states such as Germany.

LONDON (Reuters) – One message from financial markets has become quite clear: attempts by the euro zone to ring-fence Greece and stop contagion to other, more significant economies has failed.

The job now in Berlin, Brussels and Paris is not to worry about Greece, which is all but lost, or even bailed-out Dublin and Lisbon.

LONDON (Reuters) – One message from financial markets has become quite clear: attempts by the euro zone to ring-fence Greece and stop contagion to other, more significant economies has failed.

The job now in Berlin, Brussels and Paris is not to worry about Greece, which is all but lost, or even bailed-out Dublin and Lisbon.

ISLE-SUR-LA-SORGUE, France (Reuters) – The euro zone’s repeated failure to tackle its debt crisis is catapulting the bloc toward recession, raising the specter of dangerous spillovers to the rest of the world economy.

Whittling down the euro area’s mountain of debt was always going to be a long slog, even without the unpredictable political dramas in Greece and Italy that overshadowed last week’s summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Cannes on the French Riviera.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Group of 20 always faced long odds at its summit this week on making much of a difference to the resolution of the euro zone’s debt crisis. After the shock announcement of a referendum in Greece on its new bailout deal, the mission now looks impossible.

The G20 was designated in 2009 as the steering committee for the world economy and earned its spurs by coordinating a fiscal stimulus to cushion the blow of the global financial crisis.