It has been obvious for some time that the creation of the euro was a terrible mistake. Europe never had the preconditions for a successful single currency — above all, the kind of fiscal and banking union that, for example, ensures that when a housing bubble in Florida bursts, Washington automatically protects seniors against any threat to their medical care or their bank deposits.
As some of us have been saying for 20 years now…..
Surely Herr Professor Dr Krugman has been a stalwart opponent of the Euro? Surely?
So, that Florida example – you’re in favour of the State courageously throwing money at people who make bad investments?
Doesn’t sound very neoliberal baby-eating capitalist bastard to me.
And, er, wasn’t it State involvement in a housing bubble that got us into this mess in the first place?
To be fair, Krugman has also been saying this for 20 years.
For light relief, there’s a 2009 European Commission paper that crows about how wrong Krugman and other conventional economists were given the brilliant success of the Euro – http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication16345_en.pdf
“First, we now know that ever-harsher austerity is a dead end: after five years Greece is in worse shape than ever.”
A strange comment, given that he credits that very policy earlier for producing that miracle, a Greek budget surplus.
That article by Krugman is poor, he’s written much better in the past.
I hope somebody can validate this quotation, from some British politician in the first part of the nineteenth century:
“What all the damned fools always said would happen, has happened, and what all the wise men always said was impossible has come to pass. And yet the damned fools are still damned fools, and the wise men are still wise.”
To paraphrase Krugman: “The Euro has failed because it lacks a mechanism by which governments can reward people for making bad investments”.
Remind me again why the resident neolibertarians hate it?
Stephen,
Do you mean this one fromLord Melbourne:
“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/919549-what-all-the-wise-men-promised-has-not-happened-and