Comments and Discussion

摘要

The editors of this volume gave Jay Shambaugh a daunting task. The Brookings Papers has already published many articles including two in this issue alone-on various aspects of the Great Reces sion in the United States, but Shambaugh's assignment was to produce, in a single paper, an account of everything that has happened in Europe over the last 3 years. Yet the European crisis is, both in its depth and in its consequences, more complex and, dare I say, more important for world affairs than the recent U.S. recession and its aftermath. It has led to faster increases in unemployment in some regions of Europe than in any U.S. state, and it has had impacts beyond the economic domain, enmeshing Europe's institutions and politics as well as its economies. Moreover, it is likely to lead to a very different Europe 5 years from now, whether as a more integrated union of states or as a more fragmented one, perhaps even without a common currency.