AFP/Getty Images European Central Bank President Mario DraghiPopulists were about to storm the citadels of power in Paris and Rome. Countries would splinter away from the euro. Greece would be back in crisis, terror attacks would shake the continent, the departure of the U.K. would doom the European Union. At the start of the year, the consensus view on the euro EURUSD, -0.2318% , and the European economy, was dire, with plenty of forecasters predicting it would soon be down to parity with the dollar. It hasn’t quite worked out like that. Instead, Europe looks more politically united than it has in the past decade, and the economy is witnessing a cyclical upswing which, with any luck, may turn into a durable recovery. In fact, the issue now is that the euro is too strong — not that it is too weak.via