>>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.
