In this documentary, Wall Street Journal editors and reporters examine the origins of Europe's debt crisis and why it spread with such ferocity to engulf much of the continent and threaten the entire world.

When I think of German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, I think of the great Mahalia Jackson singing - "He's got the whole world in his hands."

Dr. Merkel has rebuffed pressure for ECB to intervene decisively. Go head Dr. Merkel - with your bad self! I'm a fan!

I love this man Nigel Farage, UKIP, Co-President of the EFD Group in the European Parliament (Europe of Freedom and Democracy).

The dude has balls! Check him out here.

Euro-area leaders may accept a temporary Greek default and widen the scope of their rescue fund as officials intensify efforts to resolve the region’s 21-month sovereign debt crisis.

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The euro  will survive the debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed.  Merkel and France's Sarkozy said the euro 750 billion emergency fund for the euro would remain unchanged until it expires in 2013.

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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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Gangsters, drug dealers and money launderers appear to be playing their part in helping shore up the financial stability of the euro zone.

That's thanks to their demand, according to European authorities, for high-denomination euro bank notes, in particular the €200 and €500 bills. The ECB issues these notes for a hefty profit that is welcome at a time when its response to the financial crisis has called its financial strength into question.

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The euro rose above $1.31 to the highest point in 11 weeks as improving euro-zone economic data helped the common currency extend a rally during which it has strengthened more than 10% since early June.

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For years, Edward Hugh predicted that the euro zone could not survive. Now people are finally listening to him.

The New York Times describes Mr. Hugh as a gregarious British blogger and self-taught economist who repeatedly predicted that the euro zone could not survive.

He warned "It was the height of policy folly to think that aging, penny-pinching Germans could successfully coexist under one currency umbrella with the more youthful, credit-card-wielding Irish, Greeks and Spaniards who shared the euro with them."

Mr. Hugh's rails on about economists: "Most economists, beholden as they are to their 'promiscuous but essentially useless' economic models, missed what he considers an easily predictable outcome."

And that, Mr. Hugh adds, “is why we are in such a big mess now.”

According to a Bloomberg global poll, investors have little confidence in Europe’s efforts to contain its debt crisis.

Only 23% of the poll participants say they expect the European Union’s ~$1 trillion rescue package to both keep the European monetary union together and prevent a debt default by a government.

More than 60% of those surveyed say they expect the euro to fall further against the dollar over the next 3 months.

The majority of the poll participants - 73% - think that Greece is the most likely country to default on its debt.