In times of populism and Euroscepticism, it is appropriate to reflect once again on what has been and still is the long economic crisis (2007-2017) which has upset the European and world economic system. A crisis that has challenged European democracies, unable to secure citizens' rights and basic services, and with them the EU project. The paper is an attempt to scrutinize the events that have taken place over the last ten years, and to analyze with the utmost objectivity the role played by different Europeancountries and, above all, by Germany in countering or aggravating the crisis in the so-called Euro area. The crisis, triggered by US subprime, is a structural, systemic crisis one, rooted in poor manage-ment of public affairs by the so-called advanced economies, which had long cradled in the idea of an “unstoppable growth”. The paper is based on the documents of the Bank for International Regulations, as well as on a reasoned bibliograph