How the Euro Was Saved

A crisis-fighting team

Mr Trichet had set the precedent: if the ECB was going to act in the eurozone crisis, elected governments had to act first. It was a policy that Mr Draghi would adopt, though like Mr Trichet the promise of central bank action was never explicit.

Mr Trichet, who had spent most of his career helping build Europe’s single currency, had twice before pulled the euro back from the brink – once when he agreed to purchase Greek sovereign bonds at the outset of the crisis in May 2010 and again when he expanded the bond-buying programme to Italy and Spain in the turbulent summer of 2011.

But by the time Mr Draghi took the helm of the ECB in November 2011, Mr Trichet believed it was the turn of national governments to act.

According ...