One Man's View of the World

by Lee Kuan Yew

I am not convinced, therefore, that the euro can be saved, at least not in its present form, with all 17 countries remaining in the fold. From the inception of the euro project, clear-eyed and well-respected economists, including the likes of Harvard Professor Martin Feldstein, had been sounding alarm bells about its inherent paradoxes. The British did not join because they did not see it working. They were not convinced about the benefits and were fully cognisant of the dangers. However, the governments which joined the eurozone in 1999, as well as the populations that elected them, while eager to move on the single currency, were not prepared to accept fiscal integration because of the loss of sovereignty that it obviously implied. In the end, their choice to go ahead with the euro anyway reflected a misplaced belief that Europe was somehow special enough to overcome the contradictions. It was a political decision.