Europe May Finally Get the Chance to Lead Again

Timothy Adams, who heads an association of the world’s biggest financial institutions, likens the current shakeup of the global economic system to finding a new operating system on your smartphone. “People are trying to figure out how it works,” he says.

One thing the previous OS certainly lacked was leadership from the European Union. Even when not in crisis, the bloc has struggled to make its massive economic weight felt by influencing global behavior. Now that the US, long known as “leader of the free world,” is heading in another direction, the EU is the sole big, rich, open market left.