Europe’s Hubris

Abstract

I lived through most of this financial and economic crisis in Europe while on a trading floor in London and shuttling to and from a number of European cities on regular visits to investors and policymakers. One thing that struck me and worried me from the very early stages of the crisis was the surprising degree of hubris displayed by Europeans, and especially European policymakers; as I wrote in a Wall Street Journal Europe article in January 2008: The sudden collapse in global equity markets early this week shook investors and pushed the Fed into an emergency intermeeting cut in the Federal Reserve’s funds rate.