... Feldstein argues, with claims based on 1999 data, that “monetary policy that was too expansionary for Spain and Ireland, causing a substantial acceleration of their inflation and threatening their ... groups Italy with the core countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands) as “its inflation rate and unemployment gap are more comparable to the euro area’s core countries.”46 ... predicament are important in analyzing the state of Europe’s economies, focusing on the arenas of monetary policy and European Central Bank decision making may also provide valuable insights regarding...