Current Events: The European Union and the Eurozone Crisis

"Nobody in Europe will be abandoned. Nobody in Europe will be excluded. Europe only succeeds if we work together." - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, December 15th 2010, before the E.U. summit on the eurozone debt crisis. 

These days, its impossible to read a newspaper or watch the news without seeing something about the crisis in Europe, whether its citizens rioting in the streets of Athens or Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy discussing further European fiscal integration. 

Although news of this sort has all but reached the point of being overbearing, few understand the situation and its many moving parts. This is because the crisis in Europe is a tangled mess of political unions, disastrous fiscal policy in certain constituent countries, and the actions of the European Central Bank and other global financial institutions. 

Given the minefield that European politics has become, this guide aims to walk readers through by outlining the situation in the E.U., explaining the source of the crisis, the opposing forces at work, and what could happen. 

After reading, you'll be ready for any conversation to discuss the European Central Bank, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the situation in Europe.