So perhaps we should take Kohl’s remarks as more of a warning than a prophecy. US investor Warren Buffett coined the phrase: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out”. That’s how it was in the euro area, where matters began to go astray very early on but didn’t emerge clearly for all to see until the crisis erupted.
Dwindling competitiveness, yawning current account deficits, the inefficient use of capital inflows, mounting private sector indebtedness – all these developments made the countries affected more prone to crisis, but they weren’t addressed by the EU. Indeed, unlike fiscal developments, matters that went awry at the macroeconomic level, such as excessive current account imbalances, weren’t even given a second glance.