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The banking union decision was key. Meanwhile, Europe is in a recession that is putting added pressure on government finances. "Europeans will be shocked out of their complacency, I think, soon enough," Eichengreen said. "There will be a relapse to the greater volatility of the first half of last year." "None of the underlying problems have been solved. There is no economic growth in Europe. Germany itself is on the verge of recession. The banking union doesn't exist. There's less consensus on completing it than we thought last year, so the markets are going to lose patience at some point and the crisis will be back. " Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, studied the possibility of a eurozone breakup long before the crisis that started in late 2009 forced other people to consider what was once unthinkable. He concluded that leaving the euro would be disastrously expensive and cause widespread chaos for any country that tries it. Political leaders are aware of those high costs, which means a country such as debt-strapped Greece leaving the eurozone "is off the table for the moment," he said. Concerns about Europe's economic future -- and the threat that Britain could one day pull out of the European Union, whose 27 members together make up the world's largest economy
-- clouded this year's gathering in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. The forum pulls together corporate and political leaders who strike business deals, strategize about world problems and attend lavish parties
-- and comes under regular criticism from activists and workers who say the elite event is disconnected from the world's economic realities. Activists at Davos took over a Shell station Friday to protest drilling for oil in the Arctic.
[Associated
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