The error most Americans make when trying to understand the European debt crisis is this: They fail to realize that the euro isn’t just a doomed currency, but a language unto itself. Too often the great mishaps of our era can be ascribed to a failure to communicate -- from the lip-synching scandal that engulfed the German pop/dance act Milli Vanilli, to the time when Greece’s government started leaving all those extra zeros off the liabilities side of its balance sheet a decade ago. If only these deceptions had drawn proper scrutiny at the outset, much needless pain and suffering could have been avoided. And yet, the ... (full story)