[DAWN] Europe is the victim of its own success. European prosperity was fostered over the past several decades by the Single Market, enabling the lower-wage countries to grow through trade and investment flows. However, with the launch of the single currency, the advantage of the ‘poorer’, peripheral members of the Union was significantly neutralised. The more efficient ‘northern’ countries, especially Germany, became the dominant producers and exporters, within and from the EU. Growth in the periphery was maintained by the extension of credits (sovereign bond issues, bank loans etc). With basic necessities met, the money flowed mostly into non-productive sectors, like real estate and stock markets, creating ‘bubbles’ which burst once the contagion of the US sub-prime bubble collapse spread to Europe in 2008-9.