Leveraging EFSF. IMF austerity. Bond insurance. ESM. Budgetary rules. Private sector involvement. So many wonky ideas for saving the single currency are swirling as pressure mounts on the eurozone’s leaders to find a solution at this weekend’s summit. Unusually, senior US policymakers have also weighed in, urging boldness and the American policy tools of 2008 on their European counterparts.

Some stew of these ideas may well cool financial markets for a time. But however forcefully and thoughtfully these measures may be implemented, they still amount to treating a patient who needs surgery with painkillers and sticking plaster. None of these worthy programmes will end the euro’s problems.

That s because much about today’s crisis is structural, stemming from the euro’s flawed design and particularly the misguided notion that a common monetary policy could work without integration of other policies – and not just fiscal policy. As many of us predicted, lashing 17 disparate economies together monetarily and expecting them to march in step was ludicrous.