Is there a way to read the FT without having to register or even pay for it? Even if I register I can only read 30 articles per month, or one per day. But usually they are used up much faster. As I have used up my quota how can I read the article linked to in this story?

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment - How a euro-molehill became a mountain

Ninth, economists or traders at banks in London or New York who do not get out enough sometimes assume that what happens on their doorsteps must also happen in the eurozone.

In any event, Great Britain is the real winner among EU countries, no questions.

Tenth, global financial market turmoil shows few signs of wreaking significant economic damage directly on the eurozone, where the financial services sector has not been an important driver of growth. Bank lending to businesses remains strong and eurozone consumers' finances, generally, are not over-stretched.

Eleventh, no fundamental flaws have been found in the main engines of eurozone growth (unlike in banking). Economists once questioned whether manufacturing had a future in high-cost Germany, but nobody does nowadays.

Looks like, fortunately, the European economy has resisted the Anglo Disease better than we thought...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Third, official statistics have exaggerated the slowdown. GDP figures for the first quarter were flattered by the mild winter, which boosted construction, and an early Easter, which helped tourism and travel. Smooth out the data and they are consistent with long-term eurozone economic stability, although previously one might have used adjectives such as "sclerotic".

I remember rather clearly how the very strong growth figures for the first quarter were described as a temporary aberratino that would not last. I don't remember the same critical note being given to this quarter's numbers, seen immediately as proof of the eurozone's crash. The fact is, taken together, you have rather normal numbers.

Tenth, global financial market turmoil shows few signs of wreaking significant economic damage directly on the eurozone, where the financial services sector has not been an important driver of growth. Bank lending to businesses remains strong and eurozone consumers' finances, generally, are not over-stretched.

Eleventh, no fundamental flaws have been found in the main engines of eurozone growth (unlike in banking). Economists once questioned whether manufacturing had a future in high-cost Germany, but nobody does nowadays.

In other words: the eurozone does not suffer from the Anglo Disease, and still produces stuff which the rest of the world is interested in buying, even when expensive. That does not sound like doom.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

The job security enjoyed by French workers should also help support consumer spending.

Yes, in the Financial Times!

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

1.  Eurozone medals?  Y'all need to implement a Constitution before you can go around taking credit like that.  Silliness!

2.  I'm sick of all of this whining about how it's unfair to compare the medal count among countries with radically different populations.  Bah.  If Luxembourg wants more medals, they should do what the US, China and Russia did: get themselves more land.  Lots more land.  More land and more people.  Those borders won't expand themselves.  In all the time you've been whining about how it's unfair you could have been 10 miles into Belgium by now!  Also, you should do away with your weird European cult of happy childhoods.  If you want more medals, you'll need to rip babes from the arms of their mothers in infancy and immediately place them in an intensive 14 year sports program.  Breed them, essentially.  Like horses, or puppies.  Get to work!