Tom Clark is Editor of Prospect
Joseph Stiglitz has written a new book about the euro. At least that is what it says on the cover. But when I put it to the softly-spoken professor, who gives every impression of choosing his words with painful care, that the book is not really about the euro at all, he is only too happy to agree.
Your real target, I rather presumptiously suggest to the Nobel laureate and former World Bank Chief Economist, is not really the structural flaws of the single currency. No, your real game here—I press on—is an all-out assault on the “Margaret Thatcher/Ronald Reagan ideology which happened to have been in fashion when the euro was created.” To my relief, Stiglitz doesn’t take umbrage, but smiles, nods, and finally says “that’s right.”