Economies across Europe are in trouble, with persistent low or negative GDP growth, rising unemployment and increasing adversity. The impact of debt and deficit reduction, and related austerity measures, is ever more visible and arguably ever more ineffectual — or is it that they are not doing it right? The European Central Bank’s recent interest rate cut may help with confidence, but some economies, specifically in southern Europe, are in more trouble than others, and the austerity sirens could yet be silenced there in favour of time extensions for debt and deficit reduction, further fiscal and monetary softening, and the introduction of make-work growth programmes. If peripheral Europe does succeed in rowing back from austerity and retrenchment commitments, as recent political positioning and posturing suggest, what message does that send to the wider world that is wanting an end to the euro zone sovereign debt