European Leaders Looking At Financial Crisis 'Like Rabbits At A Snake'

European leaders are it total reaction mode when it comes to the Euro financial crisis. (Sound familiar? Same thing happens in Washington.) That’s why we should be pessimistic that anything of substance will get done to effectively deal with the crisis. European leaders are kicking the can down the road, petrified at the difficult choices ahead. But the choices will get harder the more they delay. Germany’s conservative Die Welt catches the reality perfectly:

“Europe’s top politicians are staring at the financial markets like rabbits at a snake. They are allowing themselves to be driven along by developments in the capital markets as if they had no will of their own. Virtually every major anti-crisis measure in the last year and a half was only decided and implemented under the (time) pressure of acute market turbulence; the recapitalization of banks being discussed now will only be the next example.”

“All this wouldn’t be so bad if the impetus of governments didn’t immediately wane whenever the market situation eases even a little. As it is, periods of relative calm aren’t used, and any thinking about a comprehensive solution to the crisis is left to academics — until politicians are reawakened by the next outbreak of panic in the share, bond or inter-bank markets. The markets are in charge in this crisis. But in a way that no one can want.”