The problem with EU is neither austerity nor stimulus. The problem is that there are very few local products sold globally and locally and employment is both scarce and ill paid for the populace at large, since local industries moved to cheaper pastures in the 90's or died from competition.
There is no crisis to fight in Europe, this is the "new normal" - unless they can get over their collective asses and move forward what schengen has started and become one grand federal state, otherwise everyone will proudly sit on their ruins in a couple decades.
Why do you think federal state with the same fiscal characteristics across EU would help anything? That would bring only deeper centralization, out of touch decision making and inability to capitalize on locality advantages. We already see how Germany utterly dominates EU while giving scraps to the rest, even to France. Now imagine the whole EU would have the same taxes etc. as Germany, but individual states will have 10x less capital. How would that help EU?
well I was more daydreaming than anything, I don't think more superstructure are needed, especially not under the grip of germany.
but the barrier of entry to the market makes it a very uncompetitive are to start a business. just think about the new bullshit vat collection mechanism for online companies, think about southern countries being forced to keep their immigrants while stronger countries can sidestep the Dublin III regulation at their convenience, etc etc.
there is a great deal of unfairness, uncertainty, instability and risk in investing in Europe right now. Sure individual countries are fine by themselves, but if you consider them alone then china, usa, india and russia are all bigger markets with more prospect for growth than any single EU nation, while tapping the whole EU as a market means you need to comply with umptheen different codes, customer laws, taxes, exchange rates etc. yes, everyone use the euro except those who don't, and amongst those who do the purchasing power varies by countries so much it's common to have price tiers between different countries.
There is no crisis to fight in Europe, this is the "new normal" - unless they can get over their collective asses and move forward what schengen has started and become one grand federal state, otherwise everyone will proudly sit on their ruins in a couple decades.