Mario Draghi’s best ideas are those Europe finds least comfortable

Adam Smith thought that achieving spectacular economic growth required little more than “peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice”. Don’t tell Mario Draghi, who has just penned almost 400 pages on boosting European “competitiveness”, meaning economic growth. This is the second technocratic door-stopper commissioned by the European Union as it tries to bring stagnation to an end. As Mr Draghi observes in our online By Invitation column, an ageing population means that, if productivity growth does not rise, Europe’s economy will be no bigger in 2050 than it is today.