Hey Professor! EU Debt Crisis

Hey Professor of Political Economy Alberto F. Alesinaw:

Europe has been entrenched in a debt crisis since early 2010, and things recently took a turn for the worse. In your opinion, are the right things being done to correct the situation, and if not, what do you think should be done?

“No. I think the European leaders are being extremely confused and confusing about what to do .... They take steps in one direction and then step back and then step in another direction .... This confusion will result in even more worries in the Balkans, and it really shows that current European leaders are not adequate to deal with the crisis. I think what should have been done would have been, at the beginning, to ask the countries in trouble to engage in very special fiscal correction .... We should have dealt with Greece, which was the first country that was in trouble. Some of the Balkans could have retained the hope of a Greece bailout. Instead, we moved—surged in one direction and then in another, and then that has led to a jumble of confusion in the Balkans.”