All through the morning New York commute I kept hearing people say "collapse." Some were gleeful, others sad and a couple who just stared blankly in disbelief.
If Boston had its own currency, it would be tanking right now. Although one suspects that it would have been under severe short pressure since the start of the month.
The only thing that may have eased the pain of the Boston faithful may have been a sudden disbanding of the eurozone. TV news can only use "collapse" in so many headlines throughout the day.
But the Germans voted to expand the EFSF, throwing the single currency another lifeline. This is getting to be of such importance that people were live-blogging it (that used to be restricted to sports). The euro was still up in midday trading, but sold off from its highs after the vote.
Maybe the euro and the Red Sox have more in common than we think. Look at the sympathy. For the Red Sox, it is all used up. Before 2004 there would have been genuine empathy (outside of the Bronx). Now, it's another team with a large payroll that underachieved. Even die-hards are postulating that it was best not to make the playoffs anyway.
Europe also had days when it couldn't win anything. Then the EU emerged, and last decade the euro started to muscle in on the big-spending, big-winning rival dollar. People who had never used the currency before started walking around wearing caps with "€" on them. But if the euro were to collapse this year, there would be a lot of gleeful people. And some of its biggest early supporters are saying they'd be better off without a euro at all.
For now, they players on the eurozone team have averted a meltdown.
But they have their doubting Curt Schillings. And they better hope they don't have to rely on just their biggest rivals helping out down the stretch.
