“Can Angela Merkel hold Europe together?” goes the title of your main leader (March 12, 2011). No, she cannot. Why not? Because she cannot hold Germany together, either. “She has been woefully slow to get to grips with the euro zone’s troubles,” you point out, “largely because German voters do not want to bail out weak countries such as Greece, Ireland, and potentially Portugal.” Precisely. German voters are the key to the euro zone’s troubles. Namely, they will not allow makeshift bailouts that can only bolster the weak countries’ profligacy. Default would be much more to their liking, and rightly so. However, they may turn away from the euro altogether if the troubles persist, which they are likely to do on account of ceaseless dithering by the European Union’s leaders. If German voters start clamoring for the good old German mark, the euro zone’s troubles will be gone in a jiffy. And so will the hapless euro. But the point is that none of this is in Angela Merkel’s hands.