The tour of Europe

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It is not in Washington but in Paris that has played the most important stage of the weekend. The Europeans are the joysticks. They were slow, perhaps, but Europe is a group of nations with reflexes often selfish, they only have more merit. Thus, it is therefore well in Europe, including Britain, came as the most comprehensive proposals for ending the crisis and, more fundamentally still, start rebuilding the foundation for a healthier financial system.

While the Europeans have not recovered spontaneously on the same wavelength. Between France and Germany, between Great Britain and Ireland, between Paris and Madrid, tensions were often high. But ultimately, and it is essential lines have shifted. The presence of British Prime Minister in Paris two weekends in a row, at the height of the crisis, offered a Great Britain-Janus chance to show his face in Europe. This is not so common. Labor Eurosceptic, champion of "Britishness" adoptive member of the intelligentsia Boston, Gordon Brown is well aware, in these decisive moments, which looked to the strategic interests of the kingdom. London has moved closer to what De Gaulle called "European Europe". Good.

Within the euro zone, then, positions have also changed in the right direction. The German Chancellor has been much criticized, especially on this side of the Rhine, for having opposed a "nein" brutal in the first embryonic European solution put forward there are a dozen days. Without doubt she had good reason to be wary of the idea of a European Paulson certainly would have been impossible to fly. But in its own way to sweep the ideas of others, Angela Merkel had expressed great indifference to the fate of its neighbors. It changed its posture. Good.

Finally, the French presidency of the EU has taken the seriousness of the crisis and managed to take the initiative to mobilize the Europeans without falling into that through our usual diplomacy that really summed Macmillan about De Gaulle " When talking about Europe, it means France. "Again, so much the better.

Faced with the staggering leadership vacuum left by a Bush administration graduate - vacuum that will not last - it was the turn of a Europe a little more united to rebuild, in his words, the foundations for a better regulated financial system. It has something to do. Over the past twenty years, the financial creativity gave birth to what Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman, called a "new financial system." To give an idea of its size, products that are sophisticated exchange reach, according to the Bank for International Settlements, twelve times the value of the global economy. The damage caused by the crisis are now serious arguments to all these empêcheurs around in circles which, for some time, denounced absurd rules, regulators and monetary authorities powerless guilty. It is that they are often European? So much the better! ( Finance Information City )