Der Spiegel Interview with George Soros

This week's Outside the Box is in the tradition of showing the other side of the argument. Normally, anything George Soros says or does politically has my blood pressure up about 20 points. Yet, I posted another piece of his today in Over My Shoulder – and then ran across this longer piece from Der Spiegel. Note this is from a dedicated Europhile wanting to save the euro. He succintly outlines what must be done if it is to be saved, and does it as well as anyone. (I know that among my readers there are both likers and haters of Soros, but as an observer of markets he is to be respected. And this is an article in which his acumen is in evidence.

I refer you to last week's regular letter (one of my more important ones: http://www.johnmauldin.com/frontlinethoughts/the-beginning-of-the-endgame) and also to the Outside the Box piece I passed on from Michael Lewis, in which he points out that to survive, the rest of Europe must learn to behave more like Germans. This is the great objection of the euro-skeptics, since the rest of Europe does not want to be like Germans. But Soros is right to some extent when he says, "There is simply no alternative. If the euro were to break up, it would cause a banking crisis that would be totally outside the control of the financial authorities. So it would push not only Germany, not only Europe, but also the whole world into conditions very reminiscent of the Great Depression in the 1930s, which was also caused by a banking crisis that was out of control."

We find ourselves in a binary world. Either Europe goes to a fiscal union with the various countries losing control of their budgets, or the Eurozone breaks up. As I recently wrote, we must not underestimate the commitment of the European elites to do whatever it takes to hold their project together. Neither must we underestimate the ability of voters to change their leaders. This is a very volatile situation with far more implications than our subprime problem.

I continue to say that a euro crisis will lead to a recession (or worse) in the US. Attention must be paid. Soros lays out the Euro-elite agenda. I suggest you read.

Your euro-skeptic analyst,