Financial Fiddling While the Euro Burns

"Given the scale of Europe’s economic crisis, you’d think Europe’s political leaders would be laser-focused on resolving the deeper causes of the debt challenges facing Greece, Spain, and Italy. But, alas, no. For amidst the drama threatening the single currency’s viability, prominent German politicians from the right and left last week joined the chorus of European leaders calling for the immediate implementation of something that has long been a hobby-horse of globalization skeptics: an EU-wide financial-transactions tax."