Central Bank Chief Issues Dire Euro Warning

Mario Draghi tells leaders they need to move fast to save currency union
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 1, 2012 8:32 AM CDT
Central Bank Chief Issues Dire Euro Warning
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels.   (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

If alarm bells weren't already ringing in Europe, this would set them off: The chief of the European Central Bank has warned that the current structure of the eurozone is "unsustainable" and the 17 member states are going to have to move swiftly to rescue the currency union, reports the New York Times. The debt crisis, Mario Draghi told the European Parliament, has exposed the inadequacy of the financial framework created in 1999 and shown the need for stronger financial ties between member nations.

Europe's leaders have only made matters worse with hesitancy and half-measures, and they need to hurry up, "dispel the fog," and decide what they want the eurozone to look like in years to come, Draghi said. As the euro hit a 2-year low against the dollar, European Union officials called for a eurozone-wide guarantee on bank deposits, Reuters reports. Such a move could ease the growing banking crisis in Spain, where newly released figures show that depositors worried about the state of the country's banks moved a record $82 billion out of the country in March, well before the government stepped in to partly nationalize the country's fourth-biggest lender. (More Mario Draghi stories.)

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