Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, last month made an astute observation: “The European Central Bank is the only institution in Europe that works well.”

It is a remarkable statement in several ways. It implies of course that the other European institutions are not working well. I am afraid this is true. I have on previous occasions criticised the unco-ordinated policy response of Europe’s political leaders. Their anti-crisis strategy is to hope the US and China deliver sufficient growth to pull Europe out of recession. That will probably not happen this time.