Making Europe’s economy work better

THE EUROGDPThe EconomistThe Economist Today area is set for its deepest downturn and its sternest economic test yet. Some forecasters expect to shrink by nearly a tenth in 2020. But as history is being made, it is also being repeated. Talks between Europe’s politicians about the covid-19 crisis have descended into yet another ugly row over which countries gain and lose from a common currency. The acrimony has its roots in Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis in 2010-12, when stricken southerners pleaded for solidarity and northerners refused to bail out what they saw as bad behaviour.