Europe counts its victims. Watch the sad-looking Coroner Rehn, also EC Vice-President in charge of Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/videoplayer.cfm?ref=80959

Or do some math with the EC Autumn Economic Forecast presented by Mr. Rehn himself:

“Real GDP growth in the EU is now expected to come to a standstill around the end of this year, turning negative in some Member States. Only after some quarters of zero or close-to-zero GDP growth, a gradual and feeble return of growth is projected in the second half of 2012.“

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“With the expected slowdown ahead, firms are set to put hiring on hold, as is already reflected in their deteriorating employment expectations. Employment growth is expected to grind to a halt in 2012, and the low level of activity is even likely to lead to a temporary decrease in hours worked. The expected pick-up of GDP growth starting in the second half of next year is too moderate to produce any strong labour market performance within the forecast horizon. Employment growth in 2013 is therefore expected to remain meagre. As a result, unemployment is not expected to fall over the forecast horizon.“

  = Need for fiscal expansion?

Wrong. Try again:

“The main downside risks of the GDP forecast stem from fiscal sustainability, the financial industry and world trade. Ensuring fiscal sustainability remains a challenge across Europe, but also in major advanced economies outside the EU. Lack of credible progress with in addressing the sustainability  challenges could lead to even stronger financial stress.”

Hard to believe  Economics 101 is yet to be studied in Bruxelles. This is Europe for you today: the economy is dying, let’s shoot it, maybe it will resuscitate.

Is Mr. Olli Rehn the coroner or the killer of the European Union? Well it depends on the definition you adopt. Let’s see on wiki the definition of coroner. A coroner is a government official who

• “Investigates human deaths”: no, investigation is not a possible activity in the current EC climate;
• “Determines cause of death”: no, there is no interest in the EC to understand causes of death;
• “Issues death certificates”: sure enough, look at the video;
• “Maintains death records”: sure, as above.

As for being the killer, I would turn to euro Governments – that accept these EC paradigms blindly - for the main culprit.