But such optimism has been rejected by anti-establishment parties in the countries traditionally viewed as anchoring a united Europe. These far-right groups, including the National Front in France, the AfD in Germany and the Danish People's Party, point to an economic system that has failed to deliver on its promise. How else to explain sluggish growth, alarmingly high youth unemployment in certain countries, recurrent financial drama in Greece and an inability to deal with the refugee crisis?
As in an Agatha Christie novel, there appear to be multiple suspects and, in this case, multiple culprits. But a single factor bears the largest responsibility for the debacle: The repeated inability of advanced countries to deliver high inclusive growth. And the longer this deficiency is allowed to persist, the greater the damage will be.
Sophisticated advanced economies do not do well in periods of frustratingly low growth, especially when the measly benefits go to segments of the population that are already the most well-off, as has been the case recently. Under these circumstances, the list of improbable and unthinkable events isn't limited just to the emergence of anti-establishment parties, the fragmentation of established ones, negative nominal interest rates, economic isolationism, increasingly ineffective if not counter-productive central banks, and the risk of a lost generation of unemployed and unemployable youth.
The solution to low and non-inclusive growth in the advanced world isn’t a mystery, however. Many economists already agree on what is needed and why. What has been sadly and persistently lacking is the political will and ability to implement such measures.
Perhaps the trauma of Brexit could bring about a "Sputnik Moment" that would shock political leaders into uniting behind a common vision of high inclusive shared growth and force an agreement on steps that would help avoid recessions and financial instability.
The realization that only a costly and painful economic and financial shock could trigger the appropriate policy response from legislatures on both sides of the Atlantic is further evidence of the political dysfunction that, for far too long, has placed too much of the policy burden on overstretched and increasingly exhausted central banks.
And we shouldn't feel reassured even if the U.K. ends up by voting to remain in the EU: Yes that would remove the immediate threat of economic and financial disruptions but, unfortunately, it would do nothing to address with the system's underlying growth defects, which are certain to cause further turmoil.
Mohamed El-Erian is chief economic advisor at Allianz SE.