The European Commission has warned in its latest quarterly economics report that per capita living standards in the eurozone could fall to sixty percent of the United States levels by 2023, which would be comparable to the mid-Sixties. The Commission therefore urges structural economic reforms that would boost growth in the eurozone. This would be in agreement with the Lisbon strategy promulgated in 2000, the report concludes. This strategy’s aim was to make the European Union “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” by 2010. Wow! Of course, this “strategy” was plainly ridiculous in 2000, let alone today. To begin with, it was not a strategy at all. Rather, it was a mindless wish list for the new millennium. The same holds for the latest quarterly economics report. It is nothing but a mindless wish list, for growth is only a pipedream in Europe. Assuming the underlying statistics are correct, the best we can hope for is that the eurozone will indeed fall to no less than sixty percent of the United States living standards in the next ten years. Back to the mid-Sixties, as it were. Hooray!