Imagine an investor who fell asleep in the summer of 2012, at the height of the euro crisis, and woke up this morning. He would remember a simple map. In the north, a core of countries that borrowed cheaply, with Germany at the centre. In the south, a periphery of debtors – Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland – that paid dearly for the privilege of staying in the single currency. Fourteen years later, that map no longer describes the eurozone.
Belgium, home to the European Union institutions, now borrows for ten years at 4.29%. Greece, bailed out three times, pays 4.35%, almost the same rate. Portugal, rescued in 2011, pays less than Spain. Ireland, rescued in 2010, pays almost the same as the Netherlands. And France, which he remembered as part of the core, pays more than Italy.
