News
Jan Kregel: the future of eurozone depends on what happens with Greece
The november issue of Hea
Eesti Idee, Estonia’s nr 1 magazine for innovation, features a longer interview
with TUT Technology Governance professor Jan Kregel, who shares his views on Europe’s
debt crisis and the potential perspectives of global economy.
The interview is authored by Erik Aru and focuses mainly on
the situation of Greece. Professor Kregel emphasizes the importance to keep the
situation in Greece under control, because otherwise “the whole thing will fall
apart”. The roles and opportunities of Germany, France and the European Central
bank are also discussed in the light of the current crisis.
According to Kregel many of
the current problems in banking are derived from the fact that the introduction
of eurozone was not followed up with the unification of its members’ financial
markets. Nevertheless, professor Kregel remains positive about future
developments by predicting that Germany will not have any other options to
protect its economic interests other than keeping the eurozone together.
In addition to the situation
in the eurozone the article also touches upon the current economic situation in
China and in the United States. Professor Kregel highlights China’s increasing
role as the dominant power behind global economic growth, which means that its
internal developments as well as any external factors that have an effect on
China will start affecting Europe and the rest of the world even more. Kregel
is especially worried about the recent economic and political developments in
the U.S. by predicting that contrary to the prevailing opinion, the situation
there will continue to worsen rather than improve.
Jan Kregel has previously
worked in various UN-related organizations and is currently also serving as a
senior researcher at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College besides his
professorship at TUT. At TUT he teaches the „Financial Policies, Innovation and Economic
Development“ course, where the reasons behind financial
crises are also discussed.
