It's been said before, and I'll say it again: floating exchange rates provide natural tariffs against more efficient exporters (Germany/France) versus the laggard periphery (spain/portugual/greece etc). Keeping less productive countries in the euro only enslaves them further to the Germans, who now hold the keys to their future. As Spain and Greece keep going back to the ECB/IMF for another round of funds, the Germans demand more and more concessions. Already, the G20 announced a "banking union" for Europe, which sounds like the beginnings of a fiscal union. That's pretty much the only solution at this point. The real cause of all this is Western deindustrialization. The jobs went to Asia (or Germany). Most Boomers are idiots. What can we do? Interesting factoid: Greece's economy has contracted 22%, and their budget deficit is (still) at 9% GDP. To run a balanced budget, Greek GDP contracts another 9% x fiscal multiplier (1.6) = 14% GDP. That's a 36% GDP contraction, all in. Great Depression levels.
