I’d like to start this post with a joke I heard recently. A speaker at an important conference goes on and on for what feels like ages. At some point a guy just stands up and starts heading for the door. The speaker is taken aback and asks: Excuse me, where are you going? The guy turns around and answers: I’m going to have a haircut! Well – replies the speaker – couldn’t you do that before my talk? The guy looks at him and says: Well, no. Actually, I did not need a haircut before you started talking.
On 8-9 December the EU leaders will meet in Brussels in what will be their 24th meeting since the crisis started in late 2008. Are they going to impress the EU citizens and the markets? The hopes are low. I would like to attract our readers’ attention to the Manifesto of Jean Monnet Chairs: Stabilizing the Euro Area and the EU and a presentation which deal in detail with the problems facing the Eurozone and some of its countries (with many thanks to my colleague Alberto Alemanno). These documents shed light and offer solutions with regard to the sovereign debts’ struggle experienced by some Eurozone countries, which affect the health of the Eurozone itself and its common currency. The ‘glitch’ or vulnerability present at the birth of the Euro and the EMU needs to be fixed as soon as possible. For a brief and clear explanation of the options that are on the table, basically the European Commission plan, the European Council plan and the Merkel & Sarkozy plan see here.
Goethe is believed to have said:
Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting over lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
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