Snow Urges European Financial Reforms

[HenryTo]

Reforms won't seriously come into play until late next year - which will be good for the long run but it is not going to help anything in the short-run - and certainly won't help the currently slowing global economy. At some point, the Europeans will also have to take up some of the slack from American consumers. If they can't do it with the Euro at such a high level, how can they do it if, say, the Euro reaches parity with the US$ again? I don't think a Merchantilst policy of exporting their way out of an economic slowdown will work anymore.
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Thursday June 16, 2:44 AM
Snow Urges European Financial Reforms

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow urged the EU on Wednesday to push ahead with structural reforms, saying that "Europe can do better" if it removes barriers to its economic growth.

"It's clear that Europe is making enormous strides in creating one open financial market," Snow said after talks with French Finance Minister Thierry Breton.

Snow, on a tour of Europe following a meeting of the Group of Eight finance ministers in London, has repeatedly called on Europe to forge ahead with difficult economic reforms to promote growth.

"By getting the capital markets open and competitive, we'll add enormously, I think, to the prosperity of Europe and to the prosperity of America."

Leaders of the 25-nation EU are pursuing a plan of financial reforms to cut red tape, speed up financial transaction settlements and facilitate mergers and acquisitions across borders.

"We all share this sense that Europe can do better," Snow said. "The U.S. can do better, Europe can do better. As you do better, we can do better."

Breton, standing beside Snow, said that the U.S. and France shared the problems of high debt and high deficits, and cited the dollar as the reason for imbalances in the exchange rate between the U.S. currency and the euro.

"Each time I see John Snow, we have a discussion and I tell him, 'It's not the euro, that's too strong. It's the dollar that's too weak," Breton said. He added, however, that the euro's recent weakening to the dollar showed that "things are evolving in a positive way."

[Dubious]

Maybe we need to look inward?