【正文】 time that you can actually put in place the mechanisms to cope with the situation. Saikat Chaudhuri: The latest economic crisis shows it39。s coalition anyway, and Merkel is now being roundly criticized for allowing financial events in Europe to skid nearly out of control. Others point out that delaying action may have made the bailout more costly to Germany and others than it would have been earlier, as borrowing costs climbed dramatically in reaction to swiftly mounting perceived risks. In the runup to the announcement about the European aid package, Wharton professors Mauro F. Guillen(born and educated in Spain) and Saikat Chaudhuri(born and educated in Germany), and Jean Salmona (born and educated in France), founder and chairman of the editorial board of ParisTech Review, participated in an interview on the likely outes from the financial crisis facing Greece, some of its sister countries and the European Moary Union more generally. How did events spin so out of control? How will the politics of the crisis affect the Eurozones economic performance? And will there be similar crises in the future? Guillen, Chaudhuri and Salmona addressed these and other questions as well as many longerterm issues relevant in the wake of bailout efforts on May 7, just before the huge financial support package was announced. Mauro Guillen: The background to all of this is, of course, a little bit more than 10 years ago when some European countries adopted the euro as their currency. But they didn39。Crisis, Contagion and Bailouts: What39。s financial authorities did not act sooner to avert potential disaster: The leading player in any stabilization measure is Germany, because of the size and strength of its economy. But Germany was caught up in regional elections in NorthRhine Westphalia that were critical to the future of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and her coalition. Merkel appeared to want to delay any action on the European financial crisis until after elections because much of the German electorate takes a dim view on bailouts for countries thought to have overborrowed and overspent. The elections, held this past weekend as the bailout measures were being worked out, resulted in a serious defeat for Merkel39。t think about what kinds of institutional arrangement and decisionmaking procedure should be in place to tackle a crisis that unfortunately as always happens with these sovereign debt crises has built up over a very, very long period of time. But [the crises] unfold very quickly. So the roots of the situation are to be found in the last five years or 10 years and probably the last 15 years, since Greece, Portugal, Spain and so on became members of the European Union in the mid 1980s. But the unfolding of the crisis actually has taken place over just a period of two months or three months and, therefore, if you didn39。s been the lesson from the global financial crisis. I think that39。n: As you know, this is a very controversial issue. That used to be the way in which the IMF [International Moary Fund] tended to operate, especially in the beginning of the 1980s. When a country knocked on the door saying, “We can39。t. Greece needs to avoid the situation in which they don39。s unlikely to be the best way of doing it. Jean Salmona: Let me give you just a sentence, which was given by former Prime Minister [of France, and] Socialist Laurent Fabius, who launched the euro idea. He was at the top of government. He said, “We have to be realistic. We have to see really what the present situation is [instead of] what [we think] it should be.”And that we look at the situation, not as it is but as it should be, explains a lot of our problems in Europe. The result is that the people have someone to blame. They blame the banks of course. And they blame any scapegoat. For instance, I don39。t make sense. At present, the mind of the French people is “Let39。t think anybody should take pleasure in seeing the European Moary Union or the European Union [experiencing difficulty]. Quite frankly, I am dismayed at the fact that some mentators, especially in the press, are ing very close to celebrating like saying, “We told you that this was going to happen to you,” as if this wouldn39。s, clearly their recovery is ing from other places than their domestic market right now. That39。s not the case. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and so forth are much better integrated. They are the lower “cost”production centers, outsourcing centers, with high expertise mind you within the EU. And it works. Greece was not integrated for the various petitive reasons or lack thereof that we were talking about. Salmona: During the Second World War, Winston Churchill could get the British people to accept very strong measures because it was for the problem in Europe is that people do not feel it is the war, although I think it is the war a different type of war. Again, sorry to quote my French cocitizens but one of the heads of the Socialist party said last week when they had to vote in Parliament “for” or “gainst”giving $6 billion to Greece, “Eventually, okay, we are going to vote for,but I must say and emphasize the fact that we are very much against the measures that Greece is taking now.”So this is really serious. And I think that only a set of measures which would reanize the financial system at the worldwide level would have a psychological impact on the populations and on the people who vote. Unless something like that happened and the . has to take the lead nothing can happen unless [President Barack] Obama together with the IMF says, “Okay. Enough is enough. Let39。s fastchanging financial services sector. Ma, who has fed a reputation as one of China39。s say you are an actor and I don’t know what your best film was, you might get upset. Or let’s say you’re a singer [and I don39