Europe Out of the Woods? Hardly

It was perhaps unwise of George Osborne to cite the recent run of relatively positive data on the economy as final vindication of his policies – for by doing so, the Chancellor has made himself a hostage to fortune. Yet as calculated gambles on eventually being right go, it looks a rather better bet than the almost delusional triumphalism of Mr Osborne’s opposite number in Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble. “Rejoice,” the latter said in an article this week for the Financial Times, “at the positive economic signals the eurozone is sending almost continuously these days … The eurozone is clearly on the mend, both structurally and cyclically.”