Rules are made to be broken. This is a confusing adage. If you do not want a rule followed, why make it?

Yet it is clearly a popular idea among the European politicians who are managing the sovereign debt crisis. When they bailed out Greece, Ireland and Portugal they did not merely do something that exceeded their powers, they violated an explicit prohibition on such bail-outs.

Now there is talk of the European Central Bank accepting Greek government bonds as collateral even if it is “restructured” (not repaid in full) or “rescheduled” (paid late). This would violate rules about what the ECB can accept as collateral. But it will be an easy step to take because by currently accepting Greek government bonds as security the ECB is already violating rules about the required credit quality of collateral. And, as another saying goes, you might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb – especially when you will be hanged for neither. European politicians and bureaucrats suffer no punishment when they break the rules that they claimed would make the euro safe in their hands.