They would solve this crisis by creating the conditions for the next one. But we also need to be patient. The euro area is made up of 17 different democracies. And as you know very well in Washington, democracy is sometimes messy. Events may not play out as an economist would determine in his or her model.
Some of the decrease in activity may be driven by a decline in demand for services, but some may come from credit constraints. For a variety of reasons, we cannot look directly at changes in credit availability for business owners and their businesses, but we can look at two indicators for the owners who had a continuing business in 2009.