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.

The news on the UK economy just keeps getting worse. Last week’s news was unremittingly glum – from falling house prices to income squeezes, most of us are quite a bit worse off than we were a year ago.

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.

Those who were blindsided by the recent financial meltdown are now loudly blaming the “free market” for its failure to police its own excesses, and are calling for greater regulation to prevent future disasters.

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.