Page 22 - September October 2018 Disruption Report Flip Book

MONETARY POLICY
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of invention of a common currency. The Swiss franc in 1848 and the Italian lira both worked overnight because there was political unity. No question. All the currencies existing before disappeared instantly. Then there were two currencies, the currency of what was called
the Latin Monetary Union and the Scandinavian Monetary Union, created in 1865 and 1873, which collapsed before the crises of 1929 because there was no common policy, no common tax, no common budget, no common law of labor.
And you have two other common currencies that worked. One is the German mark and the other is the dollar. But when you look at the history of the dollar, you can see that the dollar worked so-so until the Civil War. Before the Civil War, a lot of different currencies floated around the country. You had some francs, you had some thalers, you had a lot of currencies coming from Europe.
The real victory of the dollar was after the Civil War, when there was federalism, a common policy, and so on. So the euro could be like the dollar if there is a political leap forward, but it is five minutes to midnight. If not, it will disappear and you will see in the coming days what will happen with Italy. Italy is going to submit its budget for the next year. It will not work. Mr. Salvini and the populists in Italy are suddenly playing with fire, and this could be one of the beginnings of the end for the euro.
That’s why I am pessimistic. After that, I continue to believe because I am optimistic, because I’m a fighter, because I’m a devoted European, because I believe that if America retreats, we have to count on Europe. I continue to hope that the spirit of Dante, of Goethe, of Robert Schuman, of Vaclav Havel prevails. (The American Thinker, Bernard-Henri Levy, Charles Davidson and Jeffrey Gedmin, 10/15/18)
“Britain is drawing up plans to charter ships to bring in emergency food and medicines m the event of ‘no-deal’ Brexit next March, in a move greeted with disbelief at a stormy meeting of Theresa May’s cabinet,” tweeted NBC News’ political editor Darren McCaffrey. (Tweeter, Darren McCaffrey, 10/23/18)
“Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, will step down as chairman of the Christian Democrats (CDU) in December [2018]—and will not seek future re-election [in 2021]—following a disastrous result in a regional election [on October 28] in Hesse,” wrote The Economist. “The CDU and its coalition partner in Berlin, the Social Democrats, each lost around 11 percentage points compared with 2013. As the age of Merkel ends, Germany will enter a period of uncertainty.”
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