A Permanent EU "Crisis"?
On December 7th, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented a 0, 5384220.story"> letter to the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy with their proposals for how to solve the current EU crisis. Except their letter was not really a proposal, in that it …
The EU's New Budget Motto: "Mother May I?"
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has just floated a proposal to subject all EU members - not just eurozone members - to more rigorous budget scrutiny by Union organs. The proposal is so contrary to the Union treaties and its scope so overreaching to the current eurozone debt crisis …
One Continent, Under France and Germany
Looks like the EU has found an alternative to German domination of everybody else. It's French-German domination of everybody else . The grand "deal" announced earlier this week has something for both France and Germany. For the Germans, France will temporarily stop talking about eurobonds and …
The Man Who Invented the Euro
The Telegraph today posts an interview of Jacques Delors by Charles Moore. I ask the man who prides himself on being an architect of European Union whether he got it all wrong. Unhesitatingly, he denies it. It is a fault in the execution, not of the architects, which he claimed to have …
A `New Europe' Plan to Save the Euro
Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski will deliver an outline of a plan to save the euro currency in a speech today in Berlin. Poland, remember, has not yet joined the Euro, and has escaped the crisis that has engulfed other Central European countries whose memberships have already taken …
What's Germany Thinking?
A friend involved in the Euro crisis writes this about the most recent German actions to rescue the Euro: This is a selfless act on Germany's part actually. A reversion to the drachma would lead to a massive devaluation & hurt the competitiveness of German exports (and it's tourism sector - …
Merkel's Plan to End the Euro
Whatever political settlement the Lisbon Treaty created to allow for the permanence of the euro is about to change. Chancellor Merkel will propose a significant change in the existing treaties, which will finally allow Greece and perhaps others to leave the euro but not the EU, and likely bestow …
The Euro? Um, Next Question Please
Last night, the CNBC anchors addressed the most urgent economic question of the moment - the fate of the euro - to four of the Republican presidential candidates: Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. I want to begin with what we saw today, another rough day for our money, for …
Will Britain Pay to Save the Euro?
David Cameron also has a referendum problem. Britain’s current government uneasily combines euro-skeptics and euro-enthusiasts. Two weeks ago, 81 Conservative backbenchers broke with party leaders to vote in favor of a new referendum on Britain’s EU membership. Cameron had promised such a …
Don't Praise the Greek Debt Deal
Whether today’s announcement that holders of Greek sovereign debt have agreed in principle to a 50% haircut on the face value of the instruments raises some critical questions. On the surface, with the notion of first-loss guarantees of new debt taking shape, this addresses the problem of …
Greece: The End of the Beginning
A deal on the Greek debt may or may not be helpful, but it certainly is clarifying. Now we can begin to understand: the Euro crisis is not about Greece, and it's not even really about European government overspending. It's about the negative consequences of building a monetary union without a …
Alan Greenspan: Wrong on the Euro
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has been reenforcing the conventional wisdom that the current eurozone debt crisis can be traced to a strong> north-south cultural divide
Save the Euro? Could be Illegal
At some point in this crisis, the eurozone is going to have to decide whether it wants to have a solvent euro for the moment in part of the Union, or a lawful and democratic Union in all of it. The EU is groping for ways to bail out a list of states that includes Greece, Italy, Portugal, …
Will America Pay for Europe's Bailout?
In my column for CNN, I discuss what sort of bailout Europe will need when it finally confronts the full scale of its debt crisis: It's been obvious for some time now what has to be done to avert the bank run: a European Super TARP, a version of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was used …
Greece Defies Reform
Back in May of 2010 it became clear that Greece could no longer finance her debt and her budget deficit through the markets. Since then the nations of the European Union (and the IMF) have covered the borrowing needs of Greece with new loans. This helping hand was conditional, the Greek …
Let's Call it Hurricane Euro
In my Marketplace column , I ask why no one is preparing for the coming collapse of the Euro: But why is it only weather stories that command such breathless attention? Meanwhile, the world's largest currency union -- the euro -- continues to careen toward disaster. The euro's travails …