If by that you mean adopting the euro, then yes, that was an improvement over what came before. Using something like BTC would have been a much greater improvement, but having a single fiat currency was still an improvement over having many little fiefdoms. And tying the parachutes together is not a good analogy. Printing money is a bad idea, and printing money unilaterally is the only thing the national governments gave up. Cyprus could not have saved itself by printing money. The Cypriots could easily have implemented good banking oversight had they wanted to. Preferably by leaving it to the market, but even if the government did it and had done a decent job. This by itself would have prevented the problem, regardless of what the ECB did.

TO ANYONE IN THE US:

Take a good fricken hard look at this and what this man has/is going through!!!  This is the exact same kind of crap we are heading for if you do not pull your head out of the fricken sand and pretend like everything is A ok!!!  I'm so sick of the complaciancy in the country.  Its PATHETIC!!!  This man worked his ass off probably to get what he has and where he is today only to have the govrnment come in and decide that they are entitled to his money.  Glad to see that over the last several hundred years one thing has not changed, those are are rich think they are entitled to anything and everything.  Those with power are never satisfied and always want MORE!  WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

To the OP:

I'm incredibly sorry for your loss and I hope things work out for you in the long run.  It sucks that you have to go through such measures to protect yourself.  Gold luck to you!

There would be no need for deposit insurance, if the banks offered 100% backed current accounts.

This is similar to Mt.Gox, who are liable to hold 100% reserve for all the USD deposited there, and obviously cannot pay interest.

These would serve the general populace. If someone wants to give his money to fractional reserve banking, it would be better if he realizes that it is a conscious choice to take risk, and he can lose it all.

The system in place now has used up its trust capital, and deserves and is destined to fail. Everyone holding bank balances denominated in fiat will lose most if not all of their purchasing power in the following 10 years.

You don't think the government's of Cyprus and Greece might not have had something to do with it? I didn't hear about the EU army that was forcing them to adopt the Euro at gunpoint.

Exactly, deposit insurance is a bad idea. It only exists to lull people into a false sense of security, so that banks can continue to play their fractional reserve games.

Country A is failing fast. Country B is not doing so hot, but far from failing just yet. Countries, in their death throes, typically inflate the shit out of their currency, to try and prop up their economies. This means that, ceteris paribus, A would have a much higher inflation rate than B. Putting them on the same currency C forces A and B to have the same inflation rate. Two things could happen here: C slows A down to the inflation rate of B, or C speeds B up to match the rate of A. If Bitcoin (or any hard currency) were C, the former would happen. They'd have no choice. But since the Euro is fiat just like every other type of funny money out there, the latter happens, and B's economy is dragged down by A. A good look at the last decade shows this clearly.

Instead of putting the brakes on the collapse of European economies, they poured on the gas, and ensured that everybody hits bottom in quick succession.

I find it funny how many "businesses' post on this forum acting like it's not a big deal to have 700k in their bank account. You should NEVER keep a large amount of money in a bank account mainly for tax purposes.

Could you enlighten us about this ? If you need to pay 1M in monthly wages, where do you move that money from ? What is the link with tax ?

Or you get educated... but not in the public school (i.e, brainwash) system?

Wait, I was under the impression that a Euro is a Euro is a Euro, are you telling me that a German Euro is worth more than a Greek Euro?

Why even institute a unified currency, then?