I think about this period in Europe a lot. We heard "austerity" measures across Europe, with the less productive economies "punished" on the back end of the financial crisis.

I will be provocative and say it *seems* like "government" started out *kinda* on something resembling the right foot after the financial crisis. And then it didn't work. At all. So they gave up.

And here we are.

(article from 2018)