Most methods were reverse engineered from the training given to US soldiers preparing to face long and extreme situations (which somehow enabled executives to conclude that these ordeals are perfectly bearable). In other words, the torturers had been tortured themselves.

The necessary transfers are not being made to make the common currency bearable to regions that lose out and are already in recession when the ECB tightens policy. The institutional foundations of stable long run fiscal policy are being eroded.

In fact, Greece's official creditors have granted it long enough grace periods and low enough interest rates that the burden is bearable. Greece actually spends less on debt service than Italy or Ireland, both of which have much lower (gross) debt to GDP ratios.

A Scandinavian level of taxes would be bearable if public services did not remain inferior to those offered in Scandinavia. For example, per capita health care spending in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland exceeds 3,000, compared to only 2,300 in Italy, where households must contribute roughly 20 of total health care spending.

It made the valley of tears bearable both by offering financial and other assistance and by holding out the promise of membership and economic prosperity in the near future. Equally important, had the EU not supported the creation of an administrative and social infrastructure of liberty, there might well have been a more serious communist or even fascist backlash in Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere.