Rich countries borrowed from the future. Paying the bill will be difficult, and so will living in a thriftier world.
The problem for the euro area is that it has trouble-spots, like Greece, with worse than average finances, and no means (until now) to tap the credit of their thriftier brethren.
Others opted for even thriftier “presentations”, where models were hired to stand on podiums like mannequins for a few hours, or to mingle with the ordinary mortals in the crowd.