In 1995 Bernard Connally, who used to work for the European Commission and was in fact head of the unit then responsible for the analysis of the European Monetary system, published a book: “The Rotten Heart of Europe:The Dirty War for Europe’s Money” which was a brilliant critique of the ERM and the EMU.
It has been republished now, and when reading it one gets goose bumps on how prophetic it was. Of course this prophecy is nothing to do with any kind of sixth sense but merely with common sense and a sound knowledge of how Economics really works. Both of which Bernard Connally shows he had in abundance. Neither of which can be found in those deciding European policy at the moment.
He was born in 1949, studied PPE at Oxford, and post graduate Economics at Manchester University. I stress his date of birth because it means that when he studied Economics both in Oxford and Manchester, considered one of the best Economics departments at the time, the dogmatic kind of Chicago school indoctrination had not yet taken over the study of this subject.
The whole book is incredibly prescient over what the Euro would and has led to. It is written with insights, knowledge, oh and he was rewarded for his pains with persecution. He was drummed out of the Commission and forbidden to set foot in the holy place again. He had blasphemed against the Holy Euro.
I would like to quote a passage from his chapter entitled Wars of Religion (apt in itself): In this instance referring to Italy, “Would they simply stand and watch a financial and political collapse; or would they find some means – probably in direct contradiction to the Maastricht Treaty – of taking over the burden of Italian debt and, in counterpart, exerting direct, almost colonial, influence on Italian Economic and budgetary decisions?” For Italian read Greek, but also Portuguese, Irish etc.
He referred to this as a nightmare scenario. Is there any doubt that we are in fact living in this nightmare scenario so brilliantly foreseen in 1995? And since Bernard Connally diagnosed the cause of this nightmare, he has also pointed to the solution. It is worse than criminal that the only solution to the unwarranted pain being inflicted on Europe is being willfully and catastrophically ignored.