Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>>Stephanie Flanders: The title of this, I did wonder when I first saw it whether it
was a typo, because we've been talking a lot about the end of the Euro the last couple
of years. And I thought, well, maybe we should have been adding an R and an O to that and
is this really the end of the E.U., that Google once again slightly pushing things a bit too
far? But, obviously, for a lot of people, the fate
of the single currency and certainly for a lot of people closely involved with this project,
the Euro has always been about the broader European project. It's always been about political
integration in Europe. But in fact some people, a few -- a handful of people here might remember
that the first big report talking about a single currency in Europe, the Werner Report
in 1970 actually was explicitly about using the single currency as a vehicle for moving
the political integration of Europe forward. And, in fact, you know, in the last chapter
of that report, said almost as an aside, of course, you can never do a single currency
without broader political integration because it just wouldn't work in the end.
Well, that report was put aside. 30 years later, they did go into the single currency.
And they're learning that lesson maybe again the hard way.
I should say, actually, as the BBC's economics editor. I should rephrase that, "Some would
say they are learning that lesson the hard way with this crisis in the last few years,"
arguably. Because, of course, I don't have a view on this.
But, I mean, the Euro is a great political drama and it's turned out to be fantastic
timing to be discussing this today, because there are these grand meetings going on this
week, concern about a new bailout for Greece just as they're signing off on the first bailout
for Portugal. And I think we'll be getting into that when we have some fantastic speakers
to speak to that. But I hope we'll also be able to step back a little and think about
the implications of this crisis for the Euro for Europe as an economy, Europe as a market,
for all of you. And I think as an example of a kind of project of a political integration
among countries, that maybe other countries in the world, other parts of the world were
interested in and maybe wanted to follow, I think all of that's there. So I hope we
can get into that. That's my first goal for this discussion.
My second goal is to not get into what on Earth is going on -- was going on with Dominique
Strauss-Kahn over the weekend. My main problem is going to be shutting people
up, because they are all good speakers and will be lively on this subject.
We have first, on my left, David McWilliams, who's a former Irish banker and economist
who left banking too early to have his assets guaranteed by the Irish government.
And I suspect -- you know, I always wonder whether that has something to do with the
fact that he's railed against that guarantee ever since as a journalist and as a writer
as well. We have Gabor Steingart, who's the editor
in chief of the very eminent German publication Handelsblatt. In Britain, we tend to be pretty
clear on what the Germans think on this and German role in this. We don't often make the
mistake of asking German people what they actually think. We prefer to -- so Google's
not making that mistake today. And Joseph Stiglitz I think probably of all
the people here doesn't need much introduction. Noble prize-winning economist now at Columbia
University. One of many people who claim to have predicted the global financial crisis,
but one of few who actually has a paper trail to prove that he predicted the crisis.
And we have from the U.K., Simon Wolfson, CEO of the major fashion chain Next, who I
guess for nearly 20 years has been deciding what an awful lot of British people are going
to wear. And I think relevant to this discussion, has been a longstanding critic of the European
Union and the excessive regulation that it has sometimes produced for U.K. and European
business. The chancellor just talked about the red tape challenge. I suspect that he
thinks Europe has failed the red tape challenge so far.