Next, I will describe the adjustment that has taken place within the stressed countries. With Greece at the epicenter of the crisis, my focus will be on what has happened in my own country. I will then turn to some related issues, notably, the reasons for the deep economic contraction in Greece and the problem of debt-sustainability.
Finally, I will discuss changes that are being made to the euro-area’s institutional set-up and their implications for the single currency’s future. Origins of the crisis Five years ago the thought of a euro-area crisis seemed counter-intuitive. After all, as David Marsh points-out in his book on the euro, European monetary union was undertaken to make the kind of crisis that occurred impossible.