Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “The big story of 2012 has been the refusal of the eurozone to collapse,” elaborates the newspaper. How very true. The survival of the euro through the year certainly surprises this bear. Although its survival through the depression remains an open question, it is still possible that it will be there five years from now, say. Given the economic shrinkage across the sub-continent, it may well serve it well, no matter how much it shrunk itself. The same holds for the European Union, of course. It, too, may shrink, but it is possible that it will survive the shrinkage. Returning to the bears, though, the joke will be on the bulls in both cases. I cannot but feel sorry for them already. If they only listened to the bears while there was still time!