Europe's darkness at noon

European Union leaders failed at their summit two weeks ago to produce anything of substance. China and Brazil are clearly reluctant to come to the rescue by providing a large injection of foreign cash.  And the recent G-20 summit in Cannes produced no agreement on steps that might have helped to resolve the crisis.

Now there is the collapse of the Greek government.  The trigger may have been outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou's ill-advised decision to call for a referendum on the EU's rescue package (which implies further severe austerity measures); but the fundamental problem is that a brutal recession made the government's demise all but inevitable.