Stormy times

The Irish debt crisis continues to occupy the media, as the EU struggles to find a solution — and Ireland tries to protect its national economic independence.

A debt union 

Forcing Ireland to accept a bailout from the EU stability fund, which was set up last spring after the debt crisis in Greece, will not save the euro, writes The Wall Street Journal.

... If the euro zone, in violation of the treaty that created it, effectively assumes the debts of all its members, it would do more damage to the credibility of the currency bloc than a haircut for its lenders. If Ireland, like Greece, cannot pay its debts, it needs to restructure them, and the sooner the better.

 It's the banks, stupid!

The EU should prepare itself for more bank failures and not just in Ireland, writes the Financial Times.

... Ireland’s basic problem is that it now has to choose between its own sovereign solvency and the solvency of its banks. Other European countries — in and out of the eurozone — may soon face the same choice. In such a world, keeping banks afloat with public capital risks sinking the sovereign — and with it, the whole banking system. ...