OP-ED COLUMNISTThe Hole in Europe’s BucketBy PAUL KRUGMANPublished: October 23, 2011RECOMMENDTWITTERLINKEDINCOMMENTS 377SIGN IN TO E-MAILPRINTREPRINTSSHARE If it weren’t so tragic, the current European crisis would be funny, in a gallows-humor sort of way. For as one rescue plan after another falls flat, Europe’s Very Serious People — who are, if such a thing is possible, even more pompous and self-regarding than their American counterparts — just keep looking more and more ridiculous.Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesPaul KrugmanGo to Columnist Page »Blog: The Conscience of a LiberalRelatedTimes Topic: European Sovereign Debt CrisisReaders’ CommentsReaders shared their thoughts on this article.Read All Comments 377 »I’ll get to the tragedy in a minute. First, let’s talk about the pratfalls, which have lately had me humming the old children’s song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.”