Fixit: The Hot New Phrase That Might Explain How the Euro Ends
As Germany continues to agree to increasingly baroque bailout schemes while insisting on tight money from the European Central Bank, a new silly portmanteau word is taking the financial world by storm: Fixit.
Fixit? Fixit = “Finland Exit.” In other words, it’s a departure from the eurozone not of a weak state but of a strong one.
Here’s why. So far, negotiations with the so-called peripheral states have been undertaken either by Germany or by Germany with its usual diplomatic partner, France. But a cluster of substantially smaller eurozone member states—Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, and Finland—are basically serving in the role of junior partners to any financial commitments undertaken by Germany. These countries, however, don’t have Germany’s unique historical situation and don’t get to play Germany’s quasi-imperial role in German decision-making. Any one of them might decide at any moment that Angela Merkel is writing checks on their behalf that they don’t want to cash and pull the plug.
Finland is a particularly likely case for several reasons.
Frank says: