I vividly remember taking a class on terrorism in college, in which the professor memorably pointed out, as we were knee deep in debate over The Troubles, "None of you are asking the obvious question: Why the heck do the British want to stay in Northern Ireland? Guinness?"

My family hails, a long time back, from bandit country in Northern Ireland, and the question was at first incomprehensible. At the time, Northern Ireland seemed like the most valuable piece of real estate on the planet--emotionally, at least. And yet, my professor was right. It wasn't really adding much to the economic and political life of Great Britain except a big headache.

This is sort of the question I had this weekend, watching this gigantic new bailout effort unfold. I understand the tactical and even the strategic value of each individual move. But the goal of all of this eludes me. Is the euro really so marvelous that it must be saved at all costs? How much do France, Germany, etc really get out of Greek euro membership?

After all, it isn't Greek's commitment to the euro, per se, that is driving its debt yields down this week. It's the apparently open-ended promise that the European Central Bank will monetize however much debt Greece cares to borrow, and that if this fails anyway, the other countries will bail Greece out. Maybe this doesn't matter so much for Greece, which is relatively small. But monetizing the debt will have big consequences if you add Spain or Italy to the list of countries on ECB life support. The fiscal cost of helping the bigger countries out will also, obviously, be horrendous.