by Calculated Risk on 12/07/2011 06:09:00 PM

A few excerpts from a Financial Times editorial: We cannot afford another half-baked solution (ht Pat)

... there are but hours to save the euro ... The world cannot afford another half-baked solution. ... What [Merkel and Sarkozy] laid out was little more than a stability plan on steroids, based on a misdiagnosis of the crisis that divides the eurozone into nations that are fiscally virtuous and those deemed to be profligate “sinners”.

A politically sustainable plan needs ... the hope of rebalancing within the eurozone, not just an endless vista of austerity.

In the short run, some fiscal agreements combined with ECB intervention will help. And it looks like the ECB will take more action tomorrow, from Bloomberg: ECB to Consider More Measures to Stimulate Bank Lending

The European Central Bank may announce a range of measures tomorrow to stimulate bank lending ...

Options on the table include loosening collateral criteria so that institutions have more access to cheap ECB cash and offering them longer-term loans to grease the flow of credit to the economy ... an interest rate cut is likely ...

But that isn't enough. Some time soon, private investors will have to be enticed to buy sovereign bonds - and somehow the eurozone has to be rebalanced. "An endless vista of austerity" will not survive the polling booths for long.