Opinion pieces

  • Self-serving myths of Europe's neo-Calvinists, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
    The Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2011

    If you have half an hour, read this paper (pdf) by Philip Whyte and Simon Tilford for the Centre for European Reform. It is a forensic look into the deeper causes of Europe's crisis and why the reactionary policies being imposed on two thirds of the eurozone by Germany's Wolfgang Schauble and the northern neo-Calvinists – with input from 1930s liquidationists at the ECB – will lead to certain disaster. 

  • Debate: Should we feel sorry for Greece?, by Simon Tilford
    BBC News, 07 November 2011

    Greece is at the eye of the storm gathering over the world economy, and threatening to tear the eurozone apart. But should the rest of us be sorry for Greece, or angry? Here, two experts present opposing arguments for and against sympathy.

  • Interview: Les Britanniques ont le sentiment que l’Union européenne essaie de faire du tort à la City, by Charles Grant
    Le Figaro, 26 October 2011

    Le Figaro - David Cameron a essuyé sa plus grande rebellion dans son propre camp au Parlement. Peut-on parler d’un vent d’euroscepticisme chez les politiques?

  • Interview: La ricetta anticrisi della Germania è illogica, by Simon Tilford
    La Repubblica, 20 October 2011

    Per l'economista del Centre for European Reform l'idea di Berlino che i paesi dell'Europa meridionale debbano "vivere con i propri mezzi" è moralistica e controproducente. Le politiche restrittive peggiorano la situazione. L’aiuto cinese non serve.

  • Eurozone 'outs' must stick up for the single market, by Charles Grant
    Financial Times, 12 October 2011

    One of the European Union’s greatest achievements has been to scrap non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services. But the “single market” remains incomplete and faces new threats. The European commissioner responsible for it is blocking further liberalisation of services – even though the Commission as a whole is economically liberal.

  • Resuscitating the euro, by Charles Grant
    The National Interest, 07 October 2011

    For almost two years, the eurozone has been stricken with a potentially fatal malaise. Three crises have intermingled and reinforced each other: Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain face crises of excessive debt (public and private); those same countries suffer from anemic economic growth; and much of the European Union is afflicted with a banking crisis.

  • Europe doesn’t lack funds, just political will, by Simon Tilford
    Financial Times, 26 September 2011

    The following article was written in response to 'Only the IMF can solve eurozone crisis' by Ragharam Rajan, published in the Financial Times, 26 September 2011.

  • Het einde van de euro, by Simon Tilford
    NRC Weekend, 25 September 2011

    De beleidsmakers van de eurozone, en vooral de Duitsers en de Nederlanders, zijn niet in staat gebleken uit te stijgen boven hun overmoed en morele betweterij, zodat de eurozone maar heel weinig munitie heeft om de komende financiële storm te trotseren.