BRUSSELS — "With nothing but austerity, Italy will die." Europe "is being battered by the selfish intransigence of Chancellor Merkel." It's time to fight unemployment caused by a "society that seeks selfish profit outside the bounds of social justice." Europe has become used to such slogans in countless street demonstrations against the German-inspired austerity policies that many now blame for the ongoing recession gripping much of the continent. In the past few days however, that disquiet has spread. 

TALLINN — Last summer, Estonia became a poster child for the euro zone’s austerity drive in an improbable but dramatic war of words between the American economist Paul Krugman and Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Now a composer has created a “financial opera” inspired by this country’s brief turn at the center of a raging debate over how to tackle the financial crisis paralyzing Europe and dragging on the global economy.