EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is an excellent analysis from Simon Johnson, published in the Economix column of the NYT. It’s a MUST READ, in my view.

via Europe’s Slow Financial Reforms – NYTimes.com.

Let me cite the NYT”s bio on Simon Johnson:

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and co-author of “White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.”

This is a very hard but realistic and scholarly look  at financial reform in Europe. This should be compared to optimistic noises coming from Berlin and Brussels, and the confusing insights from Olli Rehn.

For the busy reader, let me summarize:

It’s still the banks stupid but especially those in Germany and France!

So let me turn it around and ask an open question:

What ever happened to the French and German banks that had all that Greek debt and who’s protecting them?

Any thoughts?

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