Tales from a Crisis

The Great Recession affected the euro zone’s members in dramatically different ways. Spain’s economy suffered the collapse of its housing bubble. Labor markets’ structural fault lines came to the fore in France and Italy, while Germany’s dependence on exports brought about a sharp contraction. Yet economic analyses directed at fortifying European Union institutions typically pay scant attention to the diverse public opinion that arises from the countries’ dissimilar experiences. Nation-centric bias characterizes mass-media commentaries, so public debate about reforms takes place on a country level. Europe...