Alter mindset to secure a grown-up economy
Over the last four years, we have witnessed a sustained and virulent assault on the entire euro project by forces within and outside the eurozone. Inside, an army of politicians, academics, and various media organs have advocated the collapse of the system. Outside, financial and institutional forces have pursued a self-interest campaign to undermine the fabric of the single currency. We have come close a number of times to capitulation in the face of this wave of opposition. If that had succeeded, the eurozone, and Ireland in particular, would have been pitched in to an economic and financial crisis far worse than the one being endured presently.
Over the past weekend, a number of highly influential commentators from global investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have acknowledged huge adjustments under way that have radically changed prospects for the single currency. These changes stem from two primary drivers: (1) The ECB under Mario Draghi has shown itself to be a forceful and innovative defender of the single currency. Draghi’s leadership and pursuit of game-changing policies has hunted the bears out of Eurobond markets, and; (2) major structural changes are taking place in the peripheral European economies.
