debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
My objective in coming here today is to discuss the euro crisis. I think you will all agree that the crisis is far from resolved. It has already caused tremendous damage both financially and politically and taken an extensive human toll as well. It has transformed the European Union into something radically different from what [...]
Watch investor and philanthropist George Soros discuss the Eurozone Crisis and the existential danger it poses for the European integration process.The talk was recorded in New York at the event ‘A Discussion on the Future of Europe,’ organized by the Center on Global Economic Goverenance, SIPA, Columbia University, with The Brookings Institution and World Leaders [...]
Watch George Soros discuss the new social initiative of his foundation to create a new atmosphere of solidarity in Greece and help to alleviate the rising tensions in the country. This talk was held at the ‘Europa nach der Krise’ conference organised by the Nicolas Berggruen Institute on Governance in Berlin on 30th October 2012.
It is now clear that the main cause of the euro crisis is the member states’ surrender of their right to print money to the European Central Bank. They did not understand just what that surrender entailed – and neither did the European authorities. When the euro was introduced, regulators allowed banks to buy unlimited [...]
Far from abating, the euro crisis has taken a turn for the worse in recent months. The European Central Bank managed to relieve an incipient credit crunch through its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO), which lent over a trillion euros to eurozone banks at one percent. This brought considerable relief to financial markets, and the resulting [...]
The measures introduced by the European Central Bank last December, especially the Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO), have relieved the liquidity problems of European banks, but have not cured the financing disadvantage of the highly indebted member states. Since high-risk premiums on government bonds endanger the capital adequacy of banks, half a solution is not [...]
Earlier this week, a group of almost 100 prominent Europeans delivered an open letter to the leaders of all 17 eurozone countries. The letter said, in so many words, what the leaders of Europe now appear to have understood: they cannot go on “kicking the can down the road.” And, just as importantly, they now [...]
Financial markets are driving the world towards another Great Depression with incalculable political consequences. The authorities, particularly in Europe, have lost control of the situation. They need to regain control, and they need to do so now. Three bold steps are needed. First, the governments of the eurozone must agree in principle on a new [...]
To resolve a crisis in which the impossible has become possible, it is necessary to think the unthinkable. So, to resolve Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, it is now imperative to prepare for the possibility of default and defection from the eurozone by Greece, Portugal, and perhaps Ireland. In such a scenario, measures will have to be [...]
Financial markets abhor uncertainty; that is why they are now in crisis mode. The governments of the eurozone have taken some significant steps in the right direction to resolve the euro crisis but, obviously, they did not go far enough to reassure the markets. At their meeting on July 21, the European authorities enacted a [...]
The so-called euro crisis is generally seen exclusively as a currency crisis, but it is also a sovereign-debt crisis – and even more a banking crisis. The situation’s complexity has bred confusion, and that confusion has political consequences. Indeed, Europe faces not only an economic and financial crisis, but also, as a result, a political [...]
The architects of the euro knew that it was incomplete when they designed it. The euro had a common central bank but no common treasury. This was unavoidable, because the Maastricht Treaty was meant to bring about a monetary union without a political union. European authorities were confident, however, that if and when the euro [...]
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