What do we really know about the impact of new technologies and innovation on tomorrow’s economic landscape? Will secular stagnation be the new economic reality? Various authors have suggested that recent innovations have had only limited effect on productivity and growth in advanced economies. Others have expressed concern that these innovations may polarise societies still further and may even have negative effects on employment.
The difference is that an enterprise then just disappears from the market, whereas a country naturally continues to exist. If a country were to encounter difficulties with the conditions of monetary union, then an economic problem would arise. And -- let us not deceive ourselves -- that would soon create a political problem. Europe must avoid that problem as far as possible.