The German finance ministry later denied that it was working on bail-out scenarios.The panic revealed another gap in the euro area's fiscal set-up: a process for dealing with a sovereign default, or the threat of one.
There may be electoral appeal in that pledge if it reminds voters of the failings of the fiscal set-up put in place by Gordon Brown when he was finance minister.In America worries about the dollar's international status and the appetite of Asian central banks for Treasury bonds may yet spur a consensus on the need for a binding fiscal framework.
The fiscal crisis set up the conditions for the student strike, said Miguel Soto-Class, executive director of the Center for a New Economy, an independent research organization here.
The Office for Budget Responsibility OBRR), the fiscal watchdog set up by Mr Osborne last year, has revised its forecast for this year's GDP growth to 1.7% from 2.1% (the forecast for 2012 was nudged down to 2.5%).
From the 12th century onward, they substituted for the old feudal structure an orderly administration and fiscal organization, set up a centralized judicial system (using Roman law), and began extensive legislation.
When the euro was introduced, commentators pointed out that the criteria for fiscal policy set up by the Maastricht Treaty were too weak to ensure proper coordination, leaving profligate countries free to endanger the system.
Old times Supply-side politics Battle of the profs Malleable malls Telling Coming soon Ties that no longer bind ReprintsThe publication this week of a report by a fiscal commission set up by Mr Salmond to design a framework for how the Scottish economy could be managed after independence is intended to close the gap.
In contrast, most other euro-area countries have insouciantly breached the fiscal rules set up before the launch of the single currency (though Germany's imposition of one of its biggest tax increases since the war may signal a return to fiscal austerity).Were it to ape Finland, the EU would also be readier to see money and people shift from declining to growing industries.
Mr Swinney told the same programme that monetary union had been the recommendation of a fiscal commission set up to advise the Scottish government.
The OBR can be compared with its counterpart in Sweden – the fiscal policy council, set up in 2007.
The government's independent fiscal watchdog was set up in 2010 to monitor the public sector's finances.
