Trichet Communes With Charlemagne Before Exorcising Lehman Ghost
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As European officials haggled over the latest solution to Greece’s debt crisis last month, Jean-Claude Trichet circled the 1,200 year-old marble throne of Charlemagne in the German city of Aachen.
Hours before Moody’s Investors Service raised Greece’s default risk to 50 percent on June 1, the European Central Bank president gazed at the symbol of unity used by the Holy Roman Empire’s founder and 30 of his successors. The next day, Trichet called for “historical perspective” when addressing the turmoil afflicting Europe’s common currency.