When the Euro Almost Died

Posted on Sep 25, 2010

AP / Daniel Roland

In a fascinating tale of international financial intrigue, the Wall Street Journal reveals how a secret task force of European leaders—dubbed “the group that doesn’t exist”—was formed in 2008 to prevent the collapse of the eurozone, which could have triggered another global economic tsunami.

The Wall Street Journal:

Two months after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008, a small group of European leaders set up a secret task force—one so secret that they dubbed it “the group that doesn’t exist.”

Its mission: Devise a plan to head off a default by a country in the 16-nation euro zone.

When Greece ran into trouble a year later, the conclave, whose existence has never before been reported, had yet to agree on a strategy. In a prelude to a cantankerous public debate that would later delay Europe’s response to the euro-zone debt crisis until the eleventh hour, the task force struggled to surmount broad disagreement over whether and how the euro zone should rescue one of its own. It never found the answer.

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