euro zone crisis 2010

The euro zone crisis is commonly regarded as a sovereign debt crisis. This definition certainly applies to Greece, but the Irish case represents an almost pure specimen of a banking crisis voluntarily transformed into a sovereign crisis. A debt crisis in two small, peripheral economies could become systemic because the financial system of the euro area is overstretched and highly integrated. Had the Greek and Irish crises occurred when euro zone banks were strong and/or not very interconnected, the euro zone crisis would not have happened.