Jeffrey Sachs, quoted in the Portuguese paper Jornal de Negócios on July 5:
“This may seem an odd time to praise the EU, given the economic crises in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Europe has not solved the problem of balancing the interests of strong economies in the North and those of weaker economies in the South.
“Still, the EU’s accomplishments vastly outweigh its current difficulties. The EU has created a zone of peace where once there was relentless war. It has provided the institutional framework for reuniting Western and Eastern Europe. It has fostered regional-scale infrastructure. The single market has been crucial to making Europe one of the most prosperous places on the planet. And the EU has been a global leader on environmental sustainability.
“For these reasons, the EU provides a unique model for other regions that remain stuck in a mire of conflict, poverty, lack of infrastructure, and environmental crisis.”
George Soros, quoted in Ben Chu’s blog in yesterday’s Independent:
“The eurozone/IMF bailout fund, set up last year, isn’t big enough to rescue Italy. A great disorderly unravelling is moving nearer.
“One of the clearest and most thoughtful articles I’ve read on the slow-motion disaster in the eurozone is by George Soros in the Financial Times today.
“Soros’ argument is that European political establishment is determined to maintain the political and economic ‘status quo’ in the eurozone.
“But as Soros puts it: ‘The status quo is untenable.’ Who could deny that in light of the signs that Italian debt is under pressure?
“He recommends a Plan B: ‘A Greek default may be inevitable, but it need not be disorderly. And, while some contagion will be unavoidable – whatever happens to Greece is likely to spread to Portugal, and Ireland’s financial position, too, could become unsustainable – the rest of the eurozone needs to be ring-fenced. That means strengthening the eurozone, which would probably require wider use of Eurobonds and a eurozone-wide deposit-insurance scheme of some kind.’
“This would amount to cutting Greece (and possibly Ireland and Portugal) free from the single currency shackles, but creating a much tighter fiscal transfer union for all those nations that remain. Amputation followed by blood transfusion, if you like.
“That sounds to me like the sort of surgery the eurozone needs if it is to survive. But I fear we’re unlikely to get it. The European financial establishment seems more interesting in blaming the credit rating agencies for its torment than breaking the death spiral.”
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
The point is that all the benefits Sachs cites are being jeopardized by the flaws set out by Soros. I find The Economist persuasive on these matters. Their conclusion is that there isn’t much time left to fix the shortcomings Soros identifies. What will happen after “disorderly unravelling”? My knuckles are duly white. How about yours?
I have two knuckles – a E.U. knuckle and a Washington knuckle. I play one against the other.
You have my sympathy for having lost eight digits. Do the remaining two alternate in colour, one white the other not? (Just make sure they don’t drag on the ground the way mine do.)
I apologize for my language problem. I thought KNUCKLE was the same as the German KNOECHEL. (This is corroborated by a dictionary I consulted via Google.) But KNOECHEL means ANKLE, I have now learned, not WRIST. You are right: I have two ankles and two writes but ten digits.
I apologize for not having been able to make my point in German. Each finger has two knuckles. When you grip something hard – as when you grip the arm of the dentist’s chair out of fear – you cut off the flow of blood and they appear white. Whose knuckles drag on the ground when they walk? Apes (APs?).