-——the long term impact could be disastrous——
Actually the short term is a disaster for the MF’s at Global.
However your post raises the question....... what else could they do? They screwed around for a long time developing the solution that now appears to be a problem.
To me is falls under the heading “do something, even if it’s wrong”
They could have printed Euros. That is what any other country/currency would have done. But it is against the ECB’s rules, because the nothern countries are afraid of inflation but specifically because they were afraid of exactly this happening.
Yeah what else could they do? I don’t know. Printing Euros would have been a better solution, imho, even if they had to make a special dispensation. If they wont defend their own who will?