![\"Euro](\"http:\/\/www.liveoilprices.co.uk\/oil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Oil-prices-set-for-another-choppy-week-as-Europe-debt-remains-centre-stage.jpg\")
Euro currency gloom continues to haunt member states as falling output across the euro zone now confirms that the 17 nation economy is in its longest recession since records began in 1995 with the euro zone shrinking 0.2 percent in Q1 of 2013.<\/p>\n
Euro Depression<\/strong><\/p>\n “The misery continues,” said Carsten Brzeski, a senior economist at ING in Brussels. “Almost all core countries bar Germany are in recession and so far nothing has helped in stopping this downward spiral,”<\/p>\n For many parts of Europe, a real depression is already here, and its cost is mounting. Meanwhile, the calls on the Spanish and Greek governments to downsize their spending programs continue. Unemployment in Spain is at 27 percent. Young people are fleeing Portugal and Ireland.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Greece, one in four say they have difficulty paying for food. Yesterday the Greek Hellenic Statistical Authority reported that Greek industrial orders were down 12.7 percent in March, year on year, while industrial sales were off 11.5 percent. Unemployment keeps climbing with the youth jobless rate is an astounding 64 percent and Greece’s GDP keeps falling. Since the start of the crisis, the Greek economy has contracted by about 25 percent.<\/p>\n Despite the Depression era conditions, however, Europe has no crash plan to get people back to work. Under the German engineered strategy to escape the euro crisis, struggling southern European members must continue to cut public spending, lower wages and grind down prices until they’re competitive again. At current rates, it could take a decade or more to complete the process, according to studies by Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n All the pain being endured raises the question: Is there a breaking point at which Europeans simply say, “Enough”?<\/p>\n The Week Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n European policy makers are once again talking down the risk of a euro zone breakup, and the single currency may continue to consolidate ahead of the EU meeting on May 22 as the group continues to push for greater fiscal integration.<\/p>\n For the euro, the question is whether economic conditions continued to deteriorate in the March, boosting the odds of additional stimulus from the ECB. The latest euro zone PMI numbers will be released this week along with the German IFO report. Economists are looking for a small recovery in manufacturing and service sector activity and if they are right, the euro could extend its gains.<\/p>\n A few hours after the PMI numbers are released on Thursday ECB President Draghi will speak about the future of Europe in the global economy. If the data shows a deeper contraction in Europe and Draghi reminds investors that the central bank is watching economic data carefully to see if additional action is necessary.<\/p>\n Head for the Exit?<\/strong><\/p>\n The risk of extreme nationalism arising from the current policies and the utter devastation being wrought across half a continent to save the euro currency is not a price worth paying to secure economic benefits.<\/p>\n Member states should be leading Europe away from the precipice towards which its bureaucrats appear determined to push it. Clearly this isn’t happening at present, so it gets closer for member euro states to leave. Not, as some would suggest, to a Norwegian or Swiss style semi detached model, but complete detachment from the euro currency and maybe even the EU itself.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n