The last issue of The Economist, which appeared on the World Wide Web earlier today, boasts of a wonderful cover page. It shows a parrot lying on its back. Next to it is a stand with a bag of medicine and a catheter. In the distance, there stands Angela Merkel. “It’s only resting…,” she is saying. “Europe’s Economy,” runs the title in bold lettering. Just perfect! The Monty Python sketch about the dead parrot was first aired in 1969, but it is alive and well to this day, and it is known across the globe. The mighty newspaper’s cover is the proof, for it is hardly just a British one any longer. Returning to Europe’s economy on life support, the joke is meant only as such, as a joke. But it cuts much deeper than even The Economist would wish. However the sub-continent pulls out of the current crisis, its economy is as good as dead in the long run. Europe has run out of tricks. It has even run out of good jokes, as well. Regrettably, Monty Python is no more! It has gone to meet its maker. Bereft of life, it is history by now.