In a CNBC interview today, Warren Buffett summed up the Euro crisis in just a few sentences. Basically, ceding monetary sovereignty by eliminating currency issuance and the linkage between the central bank and treasury (which doesn’t exist in Europe) is a very bad idea:
“The system as presently designed has revealed a major flaw. And that flaw won’t be corrected just by words. Europe will either have to come closer together or there will have to be some other rearrangement because this system is not working,” Buffett said in an interview.
“17 countries in the world gave up the right to issue bonds in their own currency. That is 100 degrees away from being able to issue them in your own currency like the United States,” he said. “The situation there is fundamentally different.”
It’s so simple to see that these countries are currency users and not currency issuers. Yet we continue to see politicians and self interested people trot out the USA is Greece myth on a daily basis. It’s sad.
NB – Buffett also said he was bullish on European equities, but was fairly vague. Read more here.
Source: CNBC
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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