Germany's Unsettling Plan for Southern Europe

Europe should be feeling quite unsettled following the European Parliament's questioning of European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi on Monday. Of the questions, there were two that strike at the core of the latest struggles within the eurozone. The first was about the veracity of recent revelations that the Italian treasury is in talks with the ECB about including bundles of nonperforming loans in its asset purchase program. Draghi responded that the ECB would not buy such assets directly but that it may accept them as collateral in exchange for funds. The second was related to a plan that originated in the German Council of Economic Experts that would involve a shakeup in the way European sovereign bonds are treated, with potentially disastrous consequences for Southern Europe. This question he deflected....