Yesterday there briefly seemed to be a possibility that the proposed bailout of Greece by the IMF and other EMU members might be sufficient to calm the market jitters about the Euro Zone. However, the spoonful of sugar was not enough to make the medicine go down. Today there is a fresh upheaval and the exchange rate for the euro is at a new low for the year very close to the $1.30 mark.
Stephanie Flanders who is the economics columnist for the BBC is an economics journalist whose work I enjoy. Here is her take on the situation.
The Greek bailout flame-out
The Greek support package has not yet failed. But you can hardly call it a success. Investors have little more confidence in Greek debt than they had last week.
And - it seems - little confidence in the eurozone either. The euro today sank to a one year low, and markets shuddered across Europe.
To see what a disappointment this must be for the European authorities, consider quite how much precedent and procedure has been thrown overboard in the past few days.
Between them, eurozone governments have promised to lend Greece 80bn euros - despite a "no bail out clause" in the Maastricht treaty that was designed precisely with countries like Greece in mind.
The IMF is also on the peg for 30bn euros, even though that is more than 30 times Greece's quota at the IMF, and the most they have ever previously made available was 15 times quota.
And, also hugely significant, the European Central Bank (ECB) has agreed that European banks can put up any Greek government debt as collateral for cheap liquidity - despite the fact that the ECB's president had previously insisted there could be no change applying to one country alone.
But there are times when spelling out exactly how a country is going to be rescued only goes to remind everyone how much of a jam they are now in.
Even hard-nosed investors look at the austerity that comes with this programme and wonder how on earth a democratic government is going to stay the course. This isn't a short sharp shock, it's the macroeconomic equivalent of many years' hard labour.
There are several dimensions to this crisis. Greece gets most of the headlines. However, if that were the only problem, there might some hope of containing it. However, several other national economies within the Euro Zone are in serious difficulties. Those that stand out at the moment are Portugal, Spain and Ireland. They are being hit by contagion of the crisis which is causing the interest rates on money that they need to borrow to rise. Their situations are not identical and that may not be economically "fair". However, as their borrowing cost rise it raises the possibility that they could require the kind of financial assistance that has become a necessity for Greece.
There is of course denial that such a thing could happen, but the markets seem to be less than convinced. It seems quite unlikely that the EMU and the IMF could continue to repeat other bailouts on a scale similar to Greece. The market perception is that if it came to that default would be inevitable.
There is also the political dimension to the austerity measures that are being imposed on Greece as a condition of the bailout. Protests in Greece are spreading daily. So far they have been mostly non violent. However, nobody is sure that they will remain so. It raises the question as to whether the Greek government will have the political power to deliver on the commitments that it has made to the IMF.
Citizens in the other club med countries must certainly be wondering just what might happen to them. They have already been hit by difficult economic conditions as a result of the recession. Unemployment is at record highs. If more stringent belt tightening were to be imposed, it's reasonable to expect that they would react like their Greek neighbors.
The IMF is lending Greece funds that amount to 30 times the value of its drawing rights. Up until now the greatest multiple they have allowed has been 15. The more prosperous nations of the EMU such as Germany and France can certainly absorb their contributions to this bailout without dire fiscal impact. However, it is doubtful that they could continue to repeat it. There is already strong negative political sentiment in Germany over using tax money to help what the public sees as their spendthrift neighbors.