The Southern European Problem: Not Speculation, Not Just Fiscal Profligacy, but Structural inconsistencies

Wolfgang Munchau of the FT has a very good article published online last night, about the problems in the Eurozone, particularly in its southern members. (here's a little trick for accessing restricted news reports from the FT: Copy paste the title of the relevant article on google and click on the relevant link. For some reason this grants you access to otherwise restricted articles) It says that the problem is not speculative financial attacks on the debt of these countries, nor that it is just fiscal profligacy. It argues instead that the root problem is structural, and that there is a need for economic reform of the labour market, where wages are much above productivity. As a result these countries are not competitive vis à vis its northern neighbours.

I completely agree with it. But I need data to confirm this. I'll be updating this post.