The pessimists warning of a short-lived, or chronically weak, single currency at the European Central Bank’s inception in June 1998 have so far been “spectacularly wrong”, as Edward Hadas notes on Breakingviews.

Usually it’s those nasty, unforeseen expenses that blow a hole in a budget. That burst pipe at the start of the month. The unexpectedly high car insurance quote. Anything that involves staging the 2012 Olympics.

I have been writing here for years now about all the horrors that are finally coming to light – the end of the credit bubble, recession in America and so on.