Whose fault was it?

[TimberWolf]

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso insisted that Europe did not come to the meeting to be taught how to handle the economy.

Asked why the U.S. should risk its assets to help Europe, he snapped: 'Frankly, we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy.

'By the way, this crisis was not originated in Europe. Seeing as you mention North America, this crisis originated in North America and much of our financial sector was contaminated by, how can I put it, unorthodox practices, from some sectors of the financial market.'

[emphasis mine]

Spanish bailout fears: Nation's debt hits crisis point | Mail Online

Who is to blame for Europe's and the rest of the western world's financial woes, the Euro or the bankers?

Multiple choice poll.

[sasguru]

Clearly the Euro, by imposing a one-size fits all fiscal and monetary policy on a set of very diverse, non-convergent states.
The result was absolutely predictable - and in fact was predicted by Lawson and Hague 20 and 10 years respectively before the current events.
HTH

[SimonMac]

The cause of the problem was collective human greed, plain and simple.

If people didn't accept the freely available credit offered to them the whole snowball effect that resulted wouldn't have been as bad.

[eek]

The euro is the cause of one set of problems.

Banking is the cause of another set of problems.

Gordon Brown spending money between 2001 and 2010 is another set of issues.

The government for not regulating banks and allowing them to lend without care is another set of problems.

None of them explain all the problems. Greece does not have the same issues and root causes to the problems in Spain and Ireland.

[SimonMac]

Clearly the Euro, by imposing a one-size fits all fiscal and monetary policy on a set of very diverse, non-convergent states.
The result was absolutely predictable - and in fact was predicted by Lawson and Hague 20 and 10 years respectively before the current events.
HTH

The America has a one-size fits all fiscal and monetary policy on a set of very diverse, non-convergent states and seems to have done well

[Doggy Styles]

Barros deliberately misses the point.

There will always be economic and financial problems cropping up around the world. There always have been, and it is inevitable there always will be in the future. It is how resilient you make yourself that matters, how you set up to weather such storms.

Creating the eurozone was an epic fail in that regard. Not the only one, for example, poor regulation of banking practices in the UK was another, but the eurozone is the one that matters as far as Barros is concerned.

[sasguru]

The America has a one-size fits all fiscal and monetary policy on a set of very diverse, non-convergent states and seems to have done well

Nonsense. The difference between, say, Mississipi and California (taking 2 very different states of the top of my head), is far less than that between Greece and Germany. The American states share the same institutions, same language and are part of a political union - something Europe is not. Mobility between the states is far higher than mobility between European countries.

[ChimpMaster]

I'm Spartacus

[Mich the Tester]

The cause of the problem was collective human greed, plain and simple.

If people didn't accept the freely available credit offered to them the whole snowball effect that resulted wouldn't have been as bad.

Getting there, but I'd add decadence, indolence, anti-productive bureaucracy, over-regulation of everything, a culture that's been replaced by pulp, education failing to teach critical thinking to the populace, a false belief in the ability of mathematical models to predict the behaviour of complex systems, grandiose political plans that may have worked in earlier decades (the euro perhaps) but are not up to modern times, and Andyw. Oh, and politicians too weak willed to take tough measures in a timely fashion and who ignored the warnings of demographers about a demographic time bomb.

Trouble is, it's difficult to sort out symptoms and causes; personally I think the euro problems and the euro itself are symptoms of some deeper underlying cultural problems, others might see that the other way around; maybe some would see decadence as a cause of over-spending, maybe others would see it as a natural consequence of a credit free for all. I can't point to one single cause, but I know this; a lot needs to change.

Nowadays I also see that the euro was a mistaken concept, not because of the politica, but because we've created something that's 'too big to fail', but if it fails, it does so with dreadful consequences; that should be one lesson from the banking crisis, but I don't see evidence of that lesson being learned right now.

[Scoobos]

Clearly the Euro, by imposing a one-size fits all fiscal and monetary policy on a set of very diverse, non-convergent states.
The result was absolutely predictable - and in fact was predicted by Lawson and Hague 20 and 10 years respectively before the current events.
HTH

Yes, because Canada had the same problem with its federation didn't it?

Oh and who can forget the feeble flop that was the USD when those states united too.

Sasguru , try Montana and New York , or Alaska and Louisiana (sp?). Or Alberta and Prince Edward Island.