A Path through Europe’s Minefield

• Project Syndicate
• October 12, 2011

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.”

The Road from Depression

• Project Syndicate
• September 29, 2011

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.

How to Stop a Second Great Depression

• Financial Times
• September 29, 2011

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.

Thinking Smaller in Europe

• Project Syndicate
• September 15, 2011

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.

Does the Euro Have a Future?

• The New York Review of Books
• September 15, 2011

The euro crisis is a direct consequence of the crash of 2008. When Lehman Brothers failed, the entire financial system started to collapse and had to be put on artificial life support. This took the form of substituting the sovereign credit of governments for the bank and other credit that had collapsed.

How to Resolve the Euro Crisis

• Project Syndicate
• August 15, 2011

A comprehensive solution of the euro crisis must have three major components: reform and recapitalization of the banking system, a eurobond regime, and an exit mechanism. First, the banking system. The European Union’s Maastricht Treaty was designed to deal only with imbalances in the public sector; but, as it happened, the excesses in the banking sector were far worse.

Three Steps to Resolving the Eurozone Crisis

• Financial Times
• August 14, 2011

A comprehensive solution to the euro crisis must have three major components: reform and recapitalisation of the banking system; a eurobond regime; and an exit mechanism. First, the banking system. The European Union’s Maastricht treaty was designed to deal only with imbalances in the public sector; but excesses in the banking sector have been far worse.

Germany Must Defend the Euro

• Project Syndicate
• August 12, 2011

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.

Remarks delivered at Press Conference for Young Men’s Initiative

• New York, New York
• August 4, 2011

Good Morning. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg. I am delighted to be here today for the launch of New York City’s Young Men’s Initiative. The Mayor has shown vision and leadership with this Initiative and that is why I am happy to join forces with him.

True Europeans Now Need a ‘Plan B’

• Financial Times
• July 11, 2011

The European Union was brought into existence by what Karl Popper called “piecemeal social engineering”. A group of far-sighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised that this ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically.