Europe needs to get real about its debt crisis

Europe will continue to delay its recovery as long as debt restructuring and worst-case-scenario bank stress tests remain taboo, writes Daniel Gros.

BACK in 2007-2008, when the financial crisis was still called the “subprime” crisis, Europeans felt superior to the United States.

European bankers surely knew better than to hand out so-called “NINJA” (no income, no job, no assets) loans. These days, however, Europeans have little reason to feel smug. Their leaders seem unable to come to grips with the eurozone’s debt crisis.