Oh, sure, it sounds terrifying at first:

“European finance officials have discussed limiting the size of withdrawals from ATM machines, imposing border checks and introducing euro zone capital controls as a worst-case scenario should Athens decide to leave the euro”

But hell, at least it’s a sign that the buggers in charge are starting to take things a little more seriously.

The euro seems to have been run from day one on a mixture of wishful thinking, misdirection and (increasingly bad) luck. It’s about time some proper contingency plans were put in place – because even if these do smack somewhat of scare tactics designed to knock people into line, the fact that they are being discussed at all is at least a sign that the powers that be are waking up.

Because there *should* have been eurozone exit contingency plans in place from day one, had the thing not been devised an implemented by a bunch of deluded, blinkered idealists who refused to believe in even the *possibility* of failure. That there weren’t was arrogance of the highest degree.

The admission of the possibility that things could go tits up shows a degree of humility that’s long been missing from the European project, and as such should be welcomed even as it scares the hell out of us all.