The eurozone is in deep trouble

In Germany, the DAX index – the benchmark for the economy – is already down 4 per cent today. In France, the benchmark CAC-40 is down by 3.3 per cent – heading toward the low points seen in the spring. Across Europe a stock-market crash is starting to unfold.

Is it a panic? An overreaction of edgy traders? Not really. The reality is that the markets have noticed something that not many people have yet picked up on: that the Eurozone is at the epicentre of the second wave of Covid-19 – and the economic damage this creates is going to be a lot worse than it was in the spring.

We may think, admittedly with some justification, that the virus is bad in the UK, and the political response chaotic. But it is now far worse on the other side of the channel.