Greece and the Future of the European Experiment

Presenter: Dan Stein
Date: 7/10/11

One again, Greece is teetering on the edge. What will/should happen,
and what does it mean for the Euro and European unity? Do we have any
macroeconomists in the crowd who can actually speak knowledgeably
about these issues? Well, you're just going to have to come and find
out.  Some possible sub-topics:

1. Should Greece default? Should it leave the Euro?
2. If Greece leaves the Euro will the euro collapse?
3. Is it in the best interest of France/Germany/ECB to bail out Greece?
4. Is Italy next?
5. Does it make any sense to have a currency union without a fiscal union?
6. Should inter-country bailouts be approved by voters?

References:

The economist has a nice overview of the greek crisis (a bit old) and
its proposed solution:
http://www.economist.com/node/18866979

Here's a current article about how the sovereign crisis is affecting the banks:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531467

The WSJ weighs in:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576600283985210902.html

As far as I know, Ken Rogoff is the man when it comes to sovereign
debt issues. I'm not sure which of his million papers on the issue is
best, but this is a good survey overview on different approaches to
dealing with sovereign bankruptcy:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/staffp/2002/03/pdf/rogoff.pdf