We're Off To See The Wizard

Illustration for TIME by STEVE BRODNER

Show the European Central Bank a set of high unemployment figures — the kind, say, that are currently haunting Germany, where the jobless rate is at 9.6%. It will pass them back and explain that job creation is not its bailiwick. Prod it on the euro's fortunes in the currency markets, and the E.C.B., which sets interest rates across the 12-nation euro zone, will sigh that exchange rates are not its concern, either. Bring up last week's hot topic in Brussels — the fact that some nations, struggling to cope with the euro zone's Stability and Growth Pact, which prohibits a...

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