Modern financial systems can be a force of great good. But they can be prone to bouts of instability. Attitudes to risk can change abruptly and willingness to extend credit and to trade assets can evaporate almost instantly. Over recent years we have seen too many examples of where investors seamlessly moved from seeing risk nowhere to seeing it everywhere.
It should be borne in mind that it took the dollar half a century and two world wars to replace sterling as the international currency, despite the fact that the United States had been the major economic power since the beginning of this century. All in all, these are challenging times for Europe.