It’s been almost a month since we first asked whether you believed the European economic crisis might finally be drawing to a close. The EU Commissioner for the Euro, Olli Rehn, was telling citizens at a townhall-style meeting in Estonia that he saw “green shoots” in the European economy (though he was quick to point out that they were still extremely fragile). Supporters of stringent austerity measures finally seemed vindicated; German Chancellor Angela Merkel was rewarded handsomely in her country’s elections last month and British Prime Minister David Cameron has had an exceedingly good summer (for a sitting Prime Minister in the midst of an economic crisis) on the back of better-than-expected UK growth figures.
And yet, not all is rosy in the garden of green shoots. The IMF has just revised down its global growth forecast for the sixth consecutive time, whilst unemployment in Europe remains at near-record levels and threatens a jobless recovery. Recent reports from Oxfam and the Red Cross argue that the impact of austerity on European society will prove devastating even if the economy begins to recover, whilst others point out that debt-levels in Europe have actually increased under austerity (though they have also increased in the US thanks to its policy of fiscal stimulus, to the extent that the current political deadlockover the debt-ceiling may unwittingly reignite the crisis)..... [...]
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