A young skateboarder practices in front of the Euro sculpture outside the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.Getty Images
The latest debt miseries of Ireland, Portugal and Greece have once again turned the spotlight on the euro's future. And it may be brighter than the diehard euro-skeptics would have us believe.
Indeed, the salvation of the single currency may well lie in the current deepening crisis that envelopes the region.
That Ireland and Portugal would sooner or later have to join Greece in the line for handouts from their euro-zone brethren has never really been in question. The hardest hit of the peripheral euro zone economies are in dire fiscal shape and face years of tough budget cuts, high unemployment and extremely slow growth.
Once the politicians get over their shell-shock at the remarkably rapid decline of their countries' fortunes, they will have to swallow their national pride and take the assistance.
This should mollify bond investors, who were already sleeping better thanks to the assurance from top European finance officials that proposed tough new bailout rules will not force existing bondholders to take a haircut on their investments.
Investors and bond insurers had been repricing the risk of holding peripheral euro-zone debt ever since German Chancellor Angela Merkel persuaded the European Union to accept a treaty change in principle that would force holders to absorb a chunk of the losses in future debt restructurings.
Which brings us back to the battered euro and its prospects. The euro-haters are convinced the single currency won't survive the current earthquake intact.
Some argue it is only a matter of time before battered poor countries opt out of a regime that no longer proffers the prospect of prosperity and enables them to devalue their way out of their current debt and other woes. And Germany, by far the strongest member, will not want to be tied to endless bailouts of inept governments that can't get their own houses in order.
One version of the breakup has the stronger euro zone members in the north separating from the weaker ones, namely Ireland and the so-called Club Med countries. The latter would bring back their old currencies, linked to the euro but free to float on their own.
Well, apart from the fact no mechanism exists for such a restructured euro regime, do any of the poor countries really want to return to sharply devalued drachma and their ilk, making it all but impossible to tap the capital markets at anything less than high double-digit interest rates?
Breaking up the euro might appease those Germans who deride the lack of fiscal discipline exhibited by the peripheral euro members and who fear they will be forced to bear the financial burden of further bailouts. But the fact is no country has benefited more from the single currency.
The severe crisis is just the catalyst needed to finally get governments serious about the missing piece of the euro puzzle -- co-ordinated fiscal policy with tough, enforceable standards - to go along with the unified monetary policy. It may even trigger progress on a badly needed framework to manage competitiveness within euro area.
The European financial stability facility was approved remarkably swiftly once it became apparent how desperate the Greek situation was. With the continuing deterioration of the peripheral countries -- and the extreme risks of a euro collapse far outweighing any possible benefits to rich or poor members -- it ought to be relatively easy to make this temporary arrangement permanent.