> Meanwhile, Finland is in a depression [1][2][3], with their economy shrinking year after year, while they refuse to cut their own stagnation-causing over-bearing welfare state.

Finland and Sweden make the perfect natural experiment: one entered the Euro and can't set their own interest rates, the other did not.

I don't think Finlands welfare state is the cause of stagnation, but they will have to cut it none the less. Finlands slump grew into a depression mostly because they are tied to the same interest rates as a number of other countries, which is the great failure of the Euro experiment.