Saturday, January 15, 2011

Euros and Yuan

Sure, the dollar is on its last legs, but the euro isn't exactly in great shape either.

Open your rmb denominated bank account now with the Bank of China -- FDIC insured! (Net inflow capped at $20k per year per individual.)

NYTimes magazine on Sarkozy, Merkel and the French-German partnership. (I guess Sarkozy speaks German -- I thought Merkel doesn't speak English or French.)

“The Germans have discovered that they are the only serious global economy in Europe, capable of competing with the United States and China,” says John Kornblum, a former American ambassador to Germany. “But they’re afraid their world is coming apart around them, and what they thought would support them, the European Union, is dragging them down. They realized that the stability pact isn’t working, that the Greeks were lying and maybe others, too, that their banks and French banks were deep in the muck, and they understood this is going to cost a lot of money. So they are behaving in a very demanding way, which smells to some like nationalism. But it really is fear.”

... “The Germans don’t see it yet,” he says. “But they will have to take on the role of the United States in Europe, and have the same kind of balancing role we had for such a long time.” At that point, Germany’s marriage with France won’t matter so much anymore.

More from Krugman: Can Europe Be Saved?

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