Growing up doesn't usually involve reducing a person's responsibilities.
With the advent of the ECB that's what's happened.
Now every little eurozone country has to get used to working with interest rates that are effectively set to suit Germany.
In the noughties that meant having cheap money because Germany was in the doldrums.
Of course fiscal policies could have been used
to dampen down demand in the overheated peripheral economies at that time.
And to a certain extent there were.
In Ireland, in about 2002, there was a very generous tax-free savings scheme if people to put away money for 5 years. Practically everyone who had the money bought into it to the maximum limit allowed.
It was completely inadequate though and a lot more should have been done.
However the trend in Europe is also to harmonise fiscal policy.
So to me it looks like, if we know what's good for us, we will all have to get into line with the German economy.
In the future we will be paying ever closer attention to internal German politics and economic affairs.
Maybe that's a good thing, the Germans do seem to know how to run an economy but I don't think 'growing up' is a metaphor I'd use for it.
>Now every little eurozone country has to get used to working
>with interest rates that are effectively set to suit Germany.
Euro interest rates have always set to suit Germany and thus been too low for many of the other Euro countries - cheap money is one of the factor behind the crisis across the Euro
You can picture it as going through therapy or adolescence. And boy what a drama that is...