The Euro Widens the Culture Gap
Josef Joffe
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Josef Joffe is Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Senior Fellow of the Kissinger Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Publisher of Die Zeit, and author of numerous books on global affairs. He is also a former AICGS trustee.
In his piece entitled “The Euro Widens the Culture Gap” from the New York Times, AGI board member Josef Joffe explains how the Euro has made worse any cultural differences that existed between European countries pre-euro times. The PIIGS countries – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain – should never have been admitted to the Euro, argues Joffe. Now, the borrowing afforded to them by the Euro allowed them to continue their profligate ways, thus leading to the current crisis facing the euro-zone as a whole.
