The euro could be nearing a crisis –can it be saved? | Joseph Stiglitz

It was supposed to bring shared prosperity, but instead it has slowed growth and sown discord

The euro may be approaching another crisis. Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, has chosen what can at best be described as a eurosceptic government. This should surprise no one. The backlash in Italy is another predictable (and predicted) episode in the long saga of a poorly designed currency arrangement, in which the dominant power, Germany, impedes the necessary reforms and insists on policies that exacerbate the inherent problems, using rhetoric seemingly intended to inflame passions.

Italy has been performing poorly since the euro's launch. Its real (inflation-adjusted) GDP in 2016 was the same as it was in 2001. But the eurozone as a whole has not been doing well, either. From 2008 to 2016, its real GDP increased by just 3% in total. In 2000, a year after the euro was introduced, the US economy was only 13% larger than the eurozone; by 2016 it was 26% larger. After real growth of around 2.4% in 2017 - not enough to reverse the damage of a decade of malaise - the eurozone economy is faltering again.

Related: The EU v Italy's new government: which will blink first?