Saving Europe: How National Politics Nearly Destroyed the Euro

The origin of mistrust -- The secrets behind the banks -- Europe's awkward ambitions to change the world -- Too different for one policy -- First doubts about the euro -- The American crisis becomes the European crisis -- The European central bank's first rescue of the states -- Karlsruhe, ruling the world from the province -- The well-known secret of the Greek tragedy -- Let Greece default -- Bringing the euro to the brink, in order to save it -- Sell your islands -- Contagion -- Dr. Faust saves the euro -- From a new complacency to the Irish crisis -- A sophisticated way to commit suicide -- A fateful fight between the ECB and the heads of governments -- The crisis reaches Italy and Spain -- Berlusconi's moral hazard and the German waterboarding strategy -- Solution or dissolution : political union or the end of the euro -- Epilogue : toward the political union.