An editorial cartoon responding to the eurozone debt crisis in the period around 2010. A cartoon showing the euro coin as a balloon plunging downwards.
The balloon, being made of metal – like the euro coin – is too heavy to fly, and thus it is plunging downwards.
The idea behind the illustration is that the design of the European currency, the euro, is fundamentally flawed as it didn’t take into account fundamental issues of financial structures within the European community (the eurozone) or politics. This is symbolised by the fact that the balloon is incapable of flying.
The flat euro coin has to be transformed into a sphere for it to become a balloon. The ambiguity of the flat form of the coin and the spherical form of the balloon is a deliberate aspect of the cartoon.
Drawn: 2010
Cartoon reference number: eur13
