Quotes & Sayings About Euro

In 50 years, no one will care about the fiscal cliff or the Euro crisis. They'll just ask, "So the Arctic melted, and then what did you do?" — Bill McKibben

If the euro zone doesn't come up with a comprehensive vision of its own future, you'll have a whole range of nationalist, xenophobic and extreme movements increasing across the European Union. And, frankly, questions about the British debate on EU membership will just be a small sideshow compared to the rise of political populism. — Nick Clegg

I take office during the most difficult moment in the country's recent history. The country can be saved - it's up to us. I think it is obvious for those who support this government to undertake the commitment and ensure that our country's euro membership is not endangered. — Lucas Papademos

A German Voice, Hans-Olaf Henkel, Calls for Euro's Abolition — Anonymous

Euro currency to dissolve due to sovereign debt crisis," the talking heads grimly proclaimed. — L. Todd Wood

Post-national, welfare-state, cooperative, pacific Europe was not born of the optimistic, ambitious, forward-looking project imagined in fond retrospect by today's Euro-idealists. It was the insecure child of anxiety. — Tony Judt

We only have a Plan A. The acceptance and full implementation of the existing plan, the so-called Plan A, is the best solution for Greece, for the euro zone and also for creditors and holders. — Evangelos Venizelos

You've got some very powerful countries: Poland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and others who have a genuine desire to see the euro zone straighten itself out. It's good for all of us, whether you're in the euro zone or not, to make sure that it doesn't lead to a fracturing. — Nick Clegg

The euro is our common fate, and Europe is our common future. — Angela Merkel

At the outset of the creation of the euro in 1999, it was expected that the southern eurozone economies would behave like those in the north; the Italians would behave like Germans. They didn't. Instead, northern Europe fell into subsidizing southern Europe's excess consumption, that is, its current account deficits. — Alan Greenspan

It is the entire euro zone system which is under threat at the moment, not just a few small countries anymore ... Our euro is under threat. The changing situation needs a quick and immediate reaction. — Iveta Radicova

The euro has become a means by which superior German productivity is able to gain an absolutely unbeatable advantage over the whole eurozone territory. — Boris Johnson

I am personally convinced - and I think the Greek people share this belief in a fundamental way - that we can achieve fiscal consolidation more effectively and we can restore competitiveness in a more fundamental and permanent way within the euro area than outside. — Lucas Papademos

This much is true: When we created the euro, it wasn't possible to create a political union along with it. People weren't ready for that. But since then, they've grown more willing to go in that direction. It's a process, one that is sometimes laborious and sometimes slow. But it's important to keep the populations involved. — Wolfgang Schauble

I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it. — William Hague

Haagen-Dazs (a clever Scandi-sounding name invented by Americans in 1961) was bought for its Euro-sounding sophistication by the kind of Americans who first bought those Mercs and Beemers, while Ben & Jerry's (now owned by Unilever) brought a post-hippy sensibility to bear. Buyers saw the brand as saying 'all-natural, organic and Fairtrade.' — Peter York

I think it's often discussed that leaving the Euro is an option for Greece. I think this is really not an option. — Lucas Papademos

I think that the tying of the Montenegrin economy with the euro is a much better option than the adventure of printing our own currency. — Igor Luksic

There's no more place in the euro zone for well-meaning laxness when dealing with deficits and failings. If the demands on Greece aren't taken seriously, we'll get stuck in quicksand. In the worst case, this would make it acceptable for one tranche to not be paid out. It is in the Greeks own interest not to test that. — Peer Steinbruck

Paul Scholes should be included in England's Euro 2012 squad. — Harry Redknapp

The question we Americans need to address, before it is answered for us, is: Does this First World nation wish to become a Third World country? Because that is our destiny if we do not build a sea wall against the waves of immigration rolling over our shores ... Who speaks for the Euro-Americans, who founded the USA? ... Is it not time to take back America? — Pat Buchanan

And what is the reaction of the British politcal class? Well the Lib Dems, still think that the Euro is a success! I don't quiet think where Cleggy gets this from, I don't know. Prehaps he is cosidering an alternative career, as a stand up comedian, once he's out of politics. — Nigel Farage

In both the U.S. and Europe, the budget and balance sheet numbers do not work. When 'off-balance sheet' promises are taken into account, the U.S. and most countries of the Euro zone are insolvent. — Paul Singer

It's in our interests that the euro is a successful, strong currency. — George Osborne

In sum, as we enter the 21st century, the Euro-Atlantic community - North America and Europe together - has to face some tough challenges when it comes to improving our capability. — Lord Robertson

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances. — John Major

For a small, open economy like Cyprus, Euro adoption provides protection from international financial turmoil. — Jean-Claude Trichet

Greece is a medium-sized country in Europe. Our debt accounts for only 2.5 percent of the total of all members of the euro zone. — Evangelos Venizelos

In China the largest denomination bill they have is 100 yen, and that's maybe $7. So here you have a whole economy working with only a $7 note as the largest denomination. The euro wants to get rid of the 500-euro bill just as the United States years ago got rid of the $1,000 bill because only the criminals used $1,000 bills. — Michael Hudson

The euro is a vital issue for Germany. There is no other country that derives as much benefit from the common domestic market and the monetary union as Germany. — Peer Steinbruck

The 'in' campaign will attempt to scare people into believing that if the U.K. were to leave, investment and jobs would move abroad. They are as wrong about that now as they were when they warned that this would happen if we did not sign up to the Euro. — Nigel Lawson

Another question has been raised rather widely in Europe, in Japan as well as in the United States is what, to what extent will the euro become a reserve currency. — Robert C. Solomon

By the way, the European Union Member States together - even the euro area Member States together - are by far the biggest contributors to the IMF. — Jose Manuel Barroso

We need to put in place an economic system of governance for the euro-zone. — Francois Fillon

We are, a lot of the time, baffled by the news we see on the front pages of our newspapers, often because the stories are complex, and we missed the beginning of them anyway. (How far back do we have to go to find the roots of the Euro crisis? To 2008? 1999, when the currency came into being? 1992? 1945?) That is one of the reasons why natural disasters and murders and cases involving missing children become so involving: we understand them. — Nick Hornby

So when you are faced with a decision on the euro, it is not surprising that many people are confused. They still try to squeeze the euro debate into the old language. But deep down it is a matter of deciding where one's future lies. It is a matter of political will and courage. — Romano Prodi

The Euro is a conquest of sovereignty. It gives us a margin of manoeuvre. Its a tool to help us master globalisation and help us resist irrational shifts in the market. — Dominique Strauss-Kahn

It will not be possible to solve the current crisis with euro bonds. — Angela Merkel

No, a euro referendum will not be part of a government programme if we get the chance to form one, — Helle Thorning-Schmidt

So Europe's a big driver. And at one point, if the euro hadn't devalued, they would have been making as much money as the US with half the stores. Returns were higher. — Jim Cantalupo

Euro-American colonialism, an aspect of the capitalist economic globalization, had from its beginnings a genocidal tendency. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

In the 20 years before Greece end up with the Euro, efforts to improve competitiveness through exchange rate and adjustments resulted only in temporary gains of competitiveness. — Lucas Papademos

The designs of the paper euros, introduced in 2002, proclaim a utopian aspiration. Gone are the colorful bills of particular nations, featuring pictures of national heroes of statecraft, culture and the arts, pictures celebrating unique national narratives. With the euro, 16 nations have said goodbye to all that. — George Will

I love that Euro-pop dance music, but with girl power. I also listen to Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan. I have a Beatles song tattooed on my foot. I'm all over the place. — Hilary Duff

Italy may well be the main problem. It has benefited most from the euro by having been able to get the euro interest rate instead of what otherwise would have been its own. That would be much higher because Italy has been accumulating so much debt. In the past, Italy has inflated away its debt. The virtue of the euro is that Italy can't do it alone. A tight ECB policy wouldn't permit that to happen again. — Milton Friedman

If we are going to approach the euro area as a zone with a harsh line in the middle between AAA and non-AAA, between the north and the south, no way are we going to move forward. — Jeroen Dijsselbloem

Our membership of the euro is a guarantee of monetary stability and creates the right conditions for sustainable growth. Our membership of the euro is the only choice. — Lucas Papademos

The next Euro-elections will be a step towards a United States of Europe — Daniel Hannan

Merkel has realized that the euro is not working, but she cannot change the narrative she has created because that narrative has caught the imagination of the German public, and the German public has accepted it. — George Soros

As Dutch, British and French explorers literally put this Great Southern Land on the map it would be ridiculous to say that modern day Australia is anything other than a grand - and successful - outpost of
Euro-colonialism and, more specifically Anglo-Celt British colonialism. It's a fact of life like the Euro-colonization of the Americas etc. If it was an outpost of, let's say, Iranian or Zimbabwean colonialism would so many people still be so desperately trying to get into Australia by any means necessary, legal or otherwise? It's doubtful. Thank the Gods for Euro-colonialism! — Douglas Pearce

Second, there is something insidiously pathological about the melting pot concept in its assumption that groups should assimilate. Wehrly states, "Cultural assimilation, as practiced in the United States, is the expectation by the people in power that all immigrants and people outside the dominant group will give up their ethnic and cultural values and will adopt the values and norms of the dominant society - the White, male Euro-Americans" (1995, p. 5). Many psychologists of color, however, have referred to this process as cultural genocide, an outcome of colonial thought (Guthrie, 1997; Thomas & Sillen, 1972). — Derald Wing Sue

America's belated embrace of government health care is going to be far more expensive and disastrous than the Euro-Canadian models. Whatever one's philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you're a cabinet minister or a big time hockey player, you'll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does. But, even before it's up-and-running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs and arbitrary shakedowns. — Mark Steyn

There was a real fear that a euro-zone bank might fail, that we'd have a sovereign debt problem in one of the larger European economies. That's dissipated, thanks largely to the action of the European Central Bank. — George Osborne

In order to consolidate the euro we need to harmonise our economic, fiscal and social policies, hence we are going toward greater integration. — Francois Fillon

Countries themselves need to do everything possible to remain in the euro zone. — Mark Rutte

It's the invincible arrogance of Europe's elites that gets me. These are people who have seen the euro collapse. These are people who are presiding over a migration crisis on their borders, and yet do they ever acknowledge that they need to change? No. They say they need more integration, more of our money, more control over this country. — Michael Gove

Interest rates do not have to be identical across the whole euro area, but it is unacceptable if major differences arise from broken capital markets or concern about a euro area break-up. — Mario Draghi

The EU is mired in deep structural crisis. Greece, Portugal and Ireland cannot survive inside the Euro. — Nigel Farage

Everybody says Steve McManaman played on the left for me in Euro 96 but he never played on the left. The one time he did play on the left was against Switzerland. — Terry Venables

The interesting thing is that the 82% of the Greeks do not want to abandon the Euro. They really believe that there might be some kind of magical way where we could stay in the Eurozone but do not do our homework. This is not possible. So what we are trying to do is explain, you know, we in Greece invented democracy but we also invented at the same time populism. — Dora Bakoyannis

Another atrocity of summer is soccer. When the Euro Cup is on, it brings out the worst in people. It turns them into ravaging beasts who complain when a team they like, which they have done nothing to deserve, slips from grace and loses the match.
An old man sitting beside me at the cafe was watching the men watch the soccer rather than watch the soccer himself. He found their reactions more entertaining than the game.
"All this stuff and nonsense over men kicking a ball," he groused. "And they don't do any of the work themselves."
I told him, "We should just have wars. Then we would not need sports."
He laughed and quite agreed with me. — Michelle Franklin

If another euro country fails, so does Slovakia. Our economy is 80% open and if the citizens of Spain and Portugal have no money to buy cars made here in Slovakia then that will be bad for us. Everything is connected. — Iveta Radicova

At George Mason University I saw Hoppe present a lecture in which he claimed that Ludwig von Mises had set the intellectual foundation for not only economics, but for ethics, geometry, and optics, as well. This bizarre claim turned a serious scholar and profound thinker into a comical cult figure, a sort of Euro Kim Il Sung. — Tom G. Palmer

The Reichsmark was no longer legal tender, even though others - probably some clueless dilettantes on the side of the victorious powers - had clearly adapted my plan to turn it into a European-wide currency. At any rate, transactions were now being carried out in an artificial currency called "euro," regarded, as one would expect, with a high level of mistrust. I could have told those responsible that this would be the case. — Timur Vermes

I pick up a copy of Newsweek on the plane and immediately notice how biased, slanted, and opinionated all the U.S. newsmagazine articles are. Not that the Euro and British press aren't biased as well
they certainly are
but living in the United States we are led to believe, and are constantly reminded, that our press is fair and free of bias. After such a short time away, I am shocked at how obviously and blatantly this lie is revealed
there is the 'reporting' that is essentially parroting what the White House press secretary announces; the myriad built-in assumptions that one ceases to register after being somewhere else for a while. The myth of neutrality is an effective blanket for a host of biases. — David Byrne

The euro is good for Europe. But only if there is flexibility all around. — Milton Friedman

Whenever the debate moves on to hard numbers - our deficit with Europe, our surplus with the rest of the world, our Brussels budget contributions, the tiny part of our economy dependent on sales to the EU, the vast part subjected to EU regulation - Euro-enthusiasts quickly shift their ground and start harrumphing about influence. — Daniel Hannan

No. Seriously. Speak American and not this ancient and very fucked-up, confusing olden-day Euro crap. Without the confusing woo-woo refrences, explain why the hell you're writing Zoey off. — P.C. Cast

We have been in recess since July, and during that time there have been a fuel crisis, a Danish no vote, the collapse of the Euro and a war in the middle east, but what is our business tomorrow? The Insolvency Bill [Lords]. It ought be called the Bankruptcy Bill [Commons], because we play no role. — Tony Benn

My inspiration is European fashion. I'm really into Euro fashion, and I also love rock n' roll. That's the mentality that I like to have when I'm dealing with fashion. — Ciara

I think the funds that have been pledged at Euro Summit, combined with the outcome of the private sector involvement process should be sufficient in order to support financially the Greek Economy. — Lucas Papademos

The fact that we're going through a crisis is an opportunity for Europe to be more coordinated and more integrated. We're actually talking about a European Monetary Fund or euro bonds, about guarantees for countries, about economic governance in the European Union. That shows the strength of Europe. — George Papandreou

Across the continent, political divisions are deepening. For all of these reasons, the specter of a euro zone collapse has not been dispatched. — Barry Eichengreen

Theory of public goods. Theory that if I take you euro (as an elected state government) and give fifty cents back... you will be happier and I will be satisfied. — Radovan Kavicky

Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more than a currency and Europe more than a territory ... In the next six months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so. Political union is inseparable from economic union. Stronger growth and Euorpean integration are related issues. In both areas we will take concrete steps forward. — Laurent Fabius

Europe and the euro zone have no reason, rationally, to push Greece out of the euro. But this is a system in which many parties, many countries, many governments, many electorates participate and we could have events which, rationally, are not controllable. — Evangelos Venizelos

A country like France now does two-thirds of its trade within the euro zone. — Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Germany has acted effectively during the euro crisis. It needs to build on this to engage in other spheres too. — Joachim Gauck

I would describe that [friendship with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras] as a utilitarian friendship. At the time, his country was facing the prospect of leaving the euro zone and many Greeks felt abandoned by Europe. In such a situation, it seemed appropriate to me to present myself as a friend to Greece. It had to do with the country's dignity. — Jean-Claude Juncker

Greece has given Europe the opportunity to fix a defect in the euro zone, that is the fact that we did not have a fiscal union. Now steps have been taken to begin that process. And there is more solidarity from nation to nation, and that is a good thing. That has been Greece's gift to Europe. — George Papandreou

There is no better protection against the euro crisis than successful structural reforms in southern Europe. — Mario Draghi

So you open your mouth and listen to yourself say, "I want eight thousand a day. Plus expenses."
This is the polite, industry-standard way of saying "piss off, I'm not interested." You did the math over your morning coffee: You want to earn 100K a year, what with those bonuses you've been pulling on top of your salary. (Besides, a euro doesn't buy what it used to.) There are 250 working days in a year, and a contractor works for roughly 40 per cent of the time, so you need to charge yourself out at 2.5 times your payroll rate, or 1000 a day in order to meet your target. Not interested in the job? Pitch unrealistically high. You never know ...
"Done," says Mr. Pin-Stripe, staring at you expressionlessly. And it is at that point that you realize you are well and truly fucked. — Charles Stross

The bottom line is that the euro is a failed experiment. — Paul Singer

Our policy is European and Euro-Atlantic integration. There is no substitute for NATO. — Bidzina Ivanishvili

The United States is broke - fiscally, morally, intellectually - and the Fed has incited a global currency war (Japan just signed up, the Brazilians and Chinese are angry, and the German-dominated euro zone is crumbling) that will soon overwhelm it. When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse. If this sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out in cash, it is. — David Stockman

I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I'm trying to be more nuanced and realistic. I think there has to be a serious examination of the shortcomings of the Euro structure. Euro central institutions, whether it be fiscal policy, monetary policy, financial regulation, are simply not as robust as they are in a currency that has a national government behind it. — Stephen Harper

Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God. — Jonathan Sacks

Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon. — Nick Clegg

The Czech Republic, severed from its old Slovak half, sits in apparent landlocked contentment, inside the European Union but outside the troubled Euro Zone, set into the new Continental mosaic like one of the small sturdy paving stones, just a few inches square, that form the sidewalks under the visitor's ambling feet. — Thomas Mallon

The most skillful is Thierry Henry, he has impressed me the most. He's played a great tournament(Euro '00). He has the pace of Anelka, and the sense of Trezeguet. He's got something that no French player has ever had. He can do everything: from scoring goals, to giving assists, crossing and creating space for other players, and he fights for every ball. I've never see a player in France like him — Michel Patini

Chances are the movements of the euro as against the dollar will be relatively moderate. — Robert C. Solomon

I don't want euro bonds that serve to mutualize the entire debt of the countries in the euro zone. That can only work in the longer-term. I want euro bonds to be used to finance targeted investments in future-oriented growth projects. It isn't the same thing. Let's call them 'project bonds' instead of euro bonds. — Francois Hollande

The bigger worry for him is if Danish banks and pension funds lose faith in the peg and start to sell euro assets to hedge their currency risks. "It is more important for Danish authorities to convince people in Denmark that they keep the peg than foreign investors," he says. — Anonymous

Germany cannot get out of the euro. What it has to do, therefore, is make the economy more flexible - to eliminate the restrictions on prices, on wages and on employment; in short, the regulations that keep 10 percent of the German workforce unemployed. — Milton Friedman

We, the American people, clearly see the daunting forces we will undoubtedly face: terrorists, crime, drug gangs, the possibility of Euro-style debt riots, civil unrest or natural disaster. — Wayne LaPierre

In the end, the British didn't vote to leave because of the euro. They're not even members of the currency union. Even the refugee crisis hardly affected the country. — Jean-Claude Juncker

I've read all the books, I've watched all the films and now, thanks to the glory of home gaming, I've even kind of experienced it: I've landed on the beaches of Normandy, I have successfully held Pegasus Bridge and I've disabled German tanks with stolen Panzerfausts. I have fought in Italy, France and North Africa and if I had a Euro for every virtual life I've lost I'd be able to build a replica of Hitler's bunker in my back garden. — Tom Dunne

We already have a federation. The 11, soon to be 12, member States adopting the euro have already given up part of their sovereignty, monetary sovereignty, and formed a monetary union, and that is the first step towards a federation. — Joschka Fischer

The euro zone must strike for a better governance structure, and there is no alternative to that. Euro zone countries must either develop an exit mechanism for troubled members, or it should embrace a closer political union: an effective governance structure that is capable of enforcing rules. — Lou Jiwei

After the accession to the euro zone, interest rates declined substantially in Portugal. — Anibal Cavaco Silva