Something is stirring in the heartlands of the European Union – by which I mean the 12 original members of the eurozone. While we could recognise the technical achievement of establishing the euro, the overall economic record has long seemed abysmal; and the politicians who signed platitudinous communiqués calling for reform seemed to be whistling in the dark.
In every year after 2000, up to and including 2005, the growth rate of the eurozone was less than that of the UK and usually less than that of the US, while unemployment was higher.

The International Monetary Fund is sceptical of the apologia that lower labour utilisation might just reflect a preference for leisure, remarking in its new World Economic Outlook that “the much higher incidence of unemployment [than in the US], more extensive limits on working hours and heavy taxes on labour income all suggest that the outcome only partly reflects voluntary choices”.