Well, that's a tricky question, isn't it? Generally speaking the opposite of austerity is stimulus and I find that suggestion far more convincing myself: saving money you don't have does not make money, especially when the economy around you is collapsing. The time for austerity was 20 years ago, now it's just destructive. The obvious problem with stimulus of course is that it requires money and the only real source of that money at the moment within the Eurozone would have to be richer Member States. Now I'm a huge believer in more Europe and would be ecstatic to know that my taxes were being invested to jump-start not just the Greek, but all underpreforming EZ economies. Hey, I'd even take a income cut for that! I'm also a huge fan of creating a fiscal union to underpin the monetary one - in fact I'm not sure how we envision the euro succeeding in the long term otherwise, even if the current crisis is overcome. Of course the trouble with these suggestions is that they would be political non-starters in most rich EZ countries - as far as I'm concerned that's a huge pity. There has been so much talk about the sacrifices the Greeks must make to save the euro, I think there is room for some talk on the ways the rest of us can help.

So that would be my suggestion: stimulus coming from Northern Europe. Then once the economy is saved, the idea of austerity should be reexamined as a way of keeping economies under control. Austerity should have been applied in Greece 20 years ago. Now it is useless. In 10 years from now, once the crisis is over, it'll be pertinent again and in that way the EZ can use its collective power to control profligate tendencies across Europe, make the best use of each region's strong points and build a prosperous union.

But hey, I'm not a politician or an economist, so I'll just sit here in the back row and watch while those that are do something completely different and probably far less useful ;)