O'Neill: Twenty eurozone contradictions

EUROZONE CRISIS

Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Jim O'Neill outlines 20 contradictions in the euro area, and asks what economic lessons we can learn from the conduct of member states on the football pitch during Euro 2012.

Because the euro area continues to be the dominant topic, I thought I would approach it slightly differently this week. 1. Many European countries appear to be able to play football against each other in a better spirit than their euro negotiations. This current Euro Championships seems to be of a quality and standard way beyond the level of policy debate, and indeed, beyond the standards of the World Cup, and among lots of good games, there has (at least so far) been remarkably little on-pitch fisticuffs. 2. Does football success relate to economics as I focused on last week? So far,...