Can the Euro Survive?

In December 1998 and January 1999, high-energy physicists in Russia created a superheavy element called ununquadium with a record 114 protons. It was an impressive technical achievement. Alas, ununquadium ("oon-oon-QUOD-ee-um") is too unstable to exist in nature. The force binding its nucleus together is overwhelmed by the force tearing it apart. The synthetic element has a half-life of just 2.6 seconds.

At the very moment that the physicists in Dubna, Russia, were birthing ununquadium, another group of scientists—dismal scientists—were smashing together the currencies of Western Europe to form a brand-new synthetic element known as the euro, which they proudly launched on Jan. 1, 1999. Less than a dozen years later, the euro is under serious strain. "European officials have squandered...confidence, and like toothpaste coming out of a tube, it is difficult to put it back in," writes Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. Some agonizing questions are being openly asked. What will it take to restore monetary stability in Europe? Is the euro, like ununquadium, simply too massive for the natural world? If so, how might it blow apart—and how much damage might it do in the process?