The Fed never considered individuals like Yeager when it used rate machinations to soften the blow for banks and borrowers who made poor decisions.

FORBES: The Fed's "Loose" Money Stance Is Making Credit Tight

Anglo-Saxon sceptics about Europe's single currency gleefully predict that these strains will blow the euro apart, just as they did the exchange-rate mechanism in the early 1990s.

ECONOMIST: The euro

The unemployment numbers will be a blow for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government, which was last year forecasting a jobless rate of 24.6% by the end of 2012.

BBC: Spanish unemployed

The job cuts will be a further blow to French President Francois Hollande, who came to power on a promise to bolster manufacturing and reduce the unemployment rate, now approaching a 13-year high.

BBC: Renault to cut about 7,500 jobs in France