Debt and the euro crisis

Paul Krugman looks at the question of whether the adoption of the euro encouraged irresponsible levels of borrowing by countries and whether the euro crisis is mainly due to fiscal irresponsibility (Eurozone Fiscal Myths 05/09/2014):

In reality, here is the full list of countries for whom a fiscal irresponsibility story of the euro crisis makes any sense at all:

Greece

The truth is that Spain and Ireland were models of fiscal responsibility from 2000 to 2007, or so it seemed, and Italy wasn’t too bad. If you imagine otherwise, if you think you’ve heard that fiscal irresponsibility was more widespread than that, blame bad reporting.

Tags: austerity economics, eu, euro, european union