Europe Needs Trichet’s Unified Finance Ministry: Simon Johnson
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June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Jean-Claude Trichet, president of theEuropean Central Bank until October, last week floated twoproposals aimed at dealing with Greece and related eurozonepublic-debt problems.
The first idea would allow European Union authorities tooverride the policy decisions of member governments that can’tcome up with sustainable budgets, implying the creation of anexternal control board for the likes of Greece. This approachhas been used in the past for very weak countries (as well asfor the cities of New York and Washington in recent decades). InEurope today, it would have no political legitimacy and would becompletely unworkable -- imagine the street protests it wouldspark.