The Hour of Obama—And Don Camillo

Abstract

After the stormy August of 2011 arrived an equally turbulent autumn, and it kept getting worse until November. In September, the IMF issued a warning about larger than assumed gaps in the capitalization of European banks, which gave the markets a new reason to be scared. In October, disconcerting news emerged on the Spanish government finances and the banking sector. Furthermore, Italy faced rising yields particularly until Monti’s government took office in November. In the Cannes G20 Summit, US President Barack Obama held several multilateral meetings in three days with the Europeans. After the gathering, I wondered how come the US President was essentially chairing the Eurogroup meeting! And what’s more, he did it rather well.