ABSTRACT
The prevailing opinion among economists, legislators and public policy scholars on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean tends to be that Europe is in a regular economic recession. This is evident from the policy response that the crisis has been met with. There is plenty of evidence that Europe's crisis is abnormal. This chapter is not the first outlet for such a suggestion, though other critics of the conventional wisdom on the crisis are few and far between. The testing method presents four criteria for industrial poverty. Europe's crisis sends a clear message, both to the United States and to other industrialized economies with big welfare states. It is a message of a deep, structural crisis that is immune to traditional economic policies. It is a crisis that calls for new measures to save prosperity, and for the fearless questioning of old truths. Europe maintains its conventional-wisdom slumber, the continent will pay a high price.
