``` In early October 2008, the Dutch had suggested pooling the collective resources of the European Union’s economies to bail out their banks and guarantee deposits. The French, British, and even the boss of Deutsche Bank all supported the idea of a joint effort. This made sense, since most European banks had significant operations in neighboring countries. Regardless of whether their headquarters were in Paris or Amsterdam or Frankfurt, their exposures were pan-European. National borders should have been irrelevant for deciding who would bear the burden of saving a tightly integrated financial system.

Then the German government and the ECB made one of the greatest policy mistakes since the 1930s. They insisted on national solutions led by national governments. French President Nicolas Sarkozy claimed German Chancellor Angela Merkel had told him, “Chacun sa merde”—she would not clean up others’ messes. This decision led directly to the European sovereign crises and to a lost decade for hundreds of millions of people. ```