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No matter how much fiscal support he will receive, it will do nothing to reverse Italy’s productivity trajectory. And for as long as Italy remains part of the Eurozone, none of the above issues can be resolved.

In the Western Roman Empire’s case, it was the barbarian soldier Odoacer who finished off the ruins of a once-proud Empire. In the EU’s case, the coronavirus seems on track to achieve the same result.

Not even Friedman could have foreseen a systemic, multi-layered crisis as the one we are witnessing today. And though he predicted the euro’s eventual failure, he did not tell us what would happen afterwards. We still do not know the answer to that. But we will soon find out. Brace yourself.

If Italy fails – and there is a temptation to write ‘When’ instead of ‘If’ – it will be a catastrophe not just for Italy. It will be the end of the Euro as Europe’s currency. It will be the return of the euro crisis on steroids.

We are now living in a restless world as the old established orders no longer guarantee order and the old guarantor of the global order, ‘The West’, withdraws. In fact, one could argue that the West is also becoming less Western. It is a philosophy that is giving up on itself.

When Merkel finally leaves the political stage at the end of her chancellorship, her party and country will need a long time to recover.

Lagarde is about to set a dangerous example for an activist, winner-picking central bank. It is a precedent for the ECB itself – and for other central banks wishing to follow the ECB’s transformation.

The reason for the Germans’ current Weltuntergangsstimmung (apocalyptic mood) is economic. A new book promising “The biggest crash of all time” before 2023 tops Amazon.de’s bestseller list. And now the Bundesbank, the country’s central bank, has joined the choir of doomsday merchants with its annual Financial Stability Report.