At the 1982 session of the United Nations General Assembly, North Korea’s mission to the UN distributed a memorable press release. ”The international situation is excellent,” it said. “The world is in total disorder.”

As European Union leaders gather in Brussels on Wednesday for a two-day summit, they will be entitled to breathe a collective sigh of relief and even permit themselves a few pats on the back. The world is not, after all, in total disorder. Having stared last week into the abyss of the collapse of their financial systems, they were so horrified by what they saw that they started to implement a concerted response.