Every Country In Europe Should Be Glad It's Not Greece

No country in the euro zone was safe from the global financial crisis and the ongoing euro crisis.

But some countries have fared better than others.

Andrew Sheets, Morgan Stanley's top European credit strategist, included the chart below in a presentation he gave on Wednesday. It shows the GDP levels of eight major economies in Europe, indexed to 2008.

As you can see, Germany is all the way back to pre-crisis levels and then some. France and the UK don't have much to complain about either.

But among the debt-laden PIGS (i.e. Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) of southern Europe, Greece's current GDP is stuck in ancient Greece.

While other eurozone economies are glad they're not Greece, they're still tied to the depressed country through a shared currency.