Zero Hedge's EU economic roundup is a scary read with charts and graphs that speak for themselves. Here's one to whet your appetite...
'All benefits from the creation of the euro have been erased: Spreads above levels prevailing before the euro's birth'
Not very convincing. I saw the same graph earlier this week, and it immediately struck me that
ReplyDelete(a) the curves that are shown (Greece, Italy, Spain etc) are a minority. A greater number of countries have converged towards Germany.
(b) the graph shows spreads not absolute values. The whole convergence may have given rise to lower costs for all euro borrowers not just a narrowing of spreads. Or maybe not, but we can't tell from the graph.