The real problem isn’t financial:

A disciplined Teutonic economic order does not suit the French way of life; orderly, inflation-fighting Prussian capitalism is only slightly less horrible than the Anglo-Saxon law of the jungle from a French point of view. At the end of the day, France may simply be incapable of adjusting to the rigors of a German economic style; if so, the question of the nature of the monetary union turns into an irreconcilable contest between two fundamentally different approaches to political economy. Either France (and the rest of the Latins and Greeks) must live under German rules, or the Germans (and the other thrifty and orderly northern countries) must become more like Zorba the Greek.

The inability to square this circle is the real reason it is taking Europe so long to figure out how to deal with the euro crisis. Europe is having an identity crisis — and this is not something that can be settled in a weekend.

Or perhaps ever. At least not peacefully.