EUROPEANS like to blame America for their crisis. But look at the numbers, and it is plain the euro zone has mishandled its response. Take growth: output in America has surpassed its pre-crisis peak and is growing; the euro zone has yet to make up the lost ground and is shrinking. Or joblessness: it stood at 10% on both sides of the Atlantic in 2009, but it has now fallen below 8% in America whereas it has shot above 12% in the euro zone. In sum, the euro zone was poorly designed and European austerity has been too harsh.Were the European economy a hospital patient, the doctors might be sued for malpractice. In Europe, the price of incompetence is being paid by the young unemployed. Bombastic talk of the euro rivalling the dollar is gone. The aim is now simply to arrest the decline. As some in Berlin put it, Europe otherwise risks becoming like Latin America in the 1980s.At this week’s summit European Union leaders were taken with the sort of issues that typically concern poorer countries: finding money stashed in secret bank accounts and getting multinationals to pay their taxes. EU leaders for the most part ignored their wish to lead the world in reducing greenhouse-…
