The economic and financial crisis in the European Union has both captivated and confounded many of us. What caused these disturbing problems? How can it be that a recession in the EU can affect the U.S. and our metro area?

In analyzing the causes of the crisis one can get caught up in the special circumstances facing individual EU countries. George Vredeveld, PhD, director of the Economics Center and the Alpaugh Professor of Economics at the UC Carl H. Lindner College of Business, takes a broader approach by considering a mythical country called Lowtech, which has not yet joined the Eurozone.