lifestyle leader

I apologize for the light posting of late. I've been preoccupied with some pretty heavy work-related stuff. But I want to devote much of this week to the developing eurozone crisis. A backgrounder will follow shortly, but to give you an idea of how serious the situation in Europe is, traders have taken over $8bn in short positions against the euro, the largest bet ever against the common currency.

That's massive, almost equal to the $10bn bet against sterling made by George Soros that 'broke' the bank of England in 1992 and ejected sterling from the European Exchange-Rate Mechanism.

The euro was supposed to be one of the big winners of the financial crisis; for the 'safety' it provided countries like Slovakia, for the credible external commitment its accession criteria provided countries like Hungary and Poland, and for its rise as a viable reserve alternative to the dollar. But all of the sudden the euro is confronted with its biggest crisis and I sense that policymakers will soon encounter a stark choice: explicitly back countries like Greece and Portugal or eject them from the common currency.

Stay tuned.