The euro-zone crisis, for most of the four years is has now been running, had a very simple narrative at its heart: Spendthrift Southern European countries, with overregulated labor markets, poor tax systems, and weak industries, had allowed themselves to become fatally uncompetitive against their northern rivals, and were threatened with bankruptcy. The Northern states were powering ahead, and were reluctantly being forced to bail out their Southern neighbors.
But hold on. The figures this year suggest the crisis has flipped over.
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