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The reason that the debt crisis was so much more serious in the eurozone than anywhere else is that monetary union forced a number of states to pursue policies that exacerbated their economic woes. During the boom years, to the alarm of observers, the peripheral eurozone states were obliged to cut interest rates at a time when every orthodox economist of Left or Right would have decreed a rate rise to prevent a bubble. Then, when the crash came, these same states were unable to cushion the blow with a temporary devaluation, and so had to raise taxes during the downturn.