Eurosclerosis. An ugly word, coined for an ugly phenomenon in the 1980s, is back. The heady days of January 1999, when Europe's new single currency, the euro, was hailed as a certain harbinger of economic revival, are a distant memory. In fact the performance of the 12-country euro area over the past five years has been a bitter disappointment. And at the heart of that poor performance lie France and Germany, which account for roughly half of euro-area GDP. Unless France and Germany recover their zip, the euro area will be condemned to remain an under-achiever.
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