Europe's disarray exposes clash of cultures

EUROPE'S disarray over the euro exposes a clash of cultures between Europe and Asia. Since the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, Asia has been far more successful in putting its house in order than Europe in weathering its own crisis since 2010.

In general, Asians have shown disappointment and incomprehension at the Europeans' incapacity to prevent the euro system from descending into a tangle of muddle and fiasco - and at Europe's lack of strategic thinking in losing control of a project originally designed to secure its own destiny.

In 1999, the euro appeared for many Asian central banks - especially for the Chinese and Japanese, the world's No 2 and 3 economies, with the largest currency reserves - as an instrument of economic salvation, an alternative to the monopoly power of the US dollar. But reality has lagged sadly behind ambition.