ESPOO, Finland — Finland is, in many ways, the anti-Greece.

Like Greece, it is geographically far from the core Western European powers of Britain, France and Germany. And like Greece, it uses the euro currency. But unlike Greece, it is a model of sound governance and responsible use of debt.

Yet Finland’s economy is also not doing so great, with an 11.8 percent unemployment rate and with contracting G.D.P. in each of the last three years.

A number of American commentators have looked at Finland’s current economic troubles as a clear sign that what ails the eurozone is far deeper than profligate spending by the Greeks. Paul Krugman has made that case at The New York Times, Tim Worstall at Forbes and Matt O’Brien at The Washington Post.

Alexander Stubb, the Finnish finance minister, thinks they’re wrong. I brought this up with him Sunday at a waterside restaurant in Espoo, the Helsinki suburb where he lives. His comments — a vigorous defense of what the euro has done for Finland — help explain why elite opinion about the euro is so different on the two sides of the Atlantic.