Euro currency union showing strains

Can the frugal and the profligate cohabit the euro zone?

With Greece overdrawn and no one eager to foot the bill, Europe's messy debt crisis has exposed a fundamental weakness among the 16 countries that share the euro: different and often diametrically opposed approaches to spending don't make for a happy union.

By telling Greece they stand shoulder-to-shoulder as it struggles to rein in a runaway deficit and impose severe austerity measures, but offering little more than moral support, the European Union's biggest hitters _ Germany and France _ only slowed the market contagion afflicting Greece, and did not cure it.

As a result, analysts, …