At his monthly press conference on July 6, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet was asked if it was a coincidence that all four semi-finalists in the 2006 World Cup were members of the eurozone. Trichet mischievously replied: “I will not draw any conclusion from the fact that the four best teams in the world all belong to the euro area. But if anybody across the Atlantic or across the Channel wants to stress that, well, after all, it would be their decision.”
It’s only a game
Well, two can play the game of drawing analogies between football and economic performance. How about applying an economic analogy to footballing prowess? Let’s take a handful of indicators of economic performance and apply them to the eight EU member states that got through to the second round of the World Cup – France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain from...
