Event Overview
On May 15th, AEI's Desmond Luckman hosted a panel of experts to discuss the possibility of a eurozone crisis today.
Charles Dallara of Partners Group USA compared this to the 2010-2012 eurozone crisis that nearly tore apart the monetary union. Though the eurozone ultimately avoided such catastrophe, Dallara warned that Europe is less prepared than it once was to deal with such a crisis.
Jacques de Larosière, a former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, stressed that the euro zone's debt problems were worsening despite helpful coordination across the region and stressed the need for monetary union countries to maintain consistent spending levels.
Pietro Carlo Padoan of UniCredit said the debt crisis was both a sign of systemic failure and an opportunity for improvement and reform, and warned that the euro zone had not yet learned the lessons from past crises, increasing the risk of future ones.
Athanasios Orphanides of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reflected on the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the last Eurozone crisis and the ECB's role in mitigating the next crisis. He highlighted potential strengths and weaknesses of the ECB's policy framework that could make the Eurozone more vulnerable to a crisis. The event concluded with a Q&A session.
—Beatrice Lee
Event description
Now, with the euro zone's economy slowing and interest rates at record levels, many southern member states, such as Italy and Spain, have significantly higher debt levels than they did at the time of the 2010 euro zone debt crisis.
AEI's Desmond Luckman and experts discuss what policymakers can learn from Greece's experience about how to avoid a eurozone sovereign debt crisis — and how best to respond if such a crisis occurs.
