The current British foreign minister William Hague once described the euro as a burning building with no exits. Hague’s words still sound prophetic even though the eurozone’s house of cards is still standing. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the monetary union is the political union which preceded it and ultimately became a hindrance. For the euro visionaries, the political harmony and stability of the continent comprised the underlying drive for all the unions that followed; a cause célèbre for the generation that witnessed the horrors of World War II.

The idea to impose standardised monetary rules and regulations on European countries that are fundamentally different in terms of policy, efficiency, nature of workforce, purchasing power and other variables, has proven to be difficult and probably impossible.

Whether technocrats like Mario Monti or idealists like Francois Hollande, Europe will suffer from a self-imposed straight jacket which is also partly to blame for the sheer anarchy in Greece. The economists and policy makers in Europe have failed to grasp that culture determines a country’s success. Greeks are not Finns and certainly not Germans. Treating the south as north works on paper and in the numerous memos circulated in Brussels, but putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t change the fact that at the end of the day the pig is still a pig.

The euro will survive because European policy makers want it to survive. The euro has remained stable for the past years due to political will. However, investors should remember that the euro is the tail wagging the dog.