The consequences of a collapse would not be pretty. Whichever country precipitated it - Germany by threatening to abandon the euro, or Greece or Spain by actually doing so - would trigger economic chaos and incur its neighbours' wrath.
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Barry Eichengreen Quote
“The 24% unemployment reached at the depths of the Great Depression was no picnic.”
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This crisis of long-term unemployment is having a profoundly damaging impact on the lives of those bearing the brunt of it. We know this thanks to a series of careful studies of the problem conducted in the depths of the 1930s Great Depression.
As for the single market, the E.U.'s landmark achievement, there is no question that a euro zone breakup would severely disrupt its operation in the short run.
Across the continent, political divisions are deepening. For all of these reasons, the specter of a euro zone collapse has not been dispatched.
Every day it seems more likely that we are destined - or should one say doomed? - to replay the disastrous economic history of the 1930s.
Why was there so much work-sharing in the 1930s? One reason is that government pushed for it. In his memoirs, President Herbert Hoover estimated that as many as two million workers avoided unemployment as a result of his efforts to promote work-sharing.