The euro: the 'short of the decade'

At some point, the European Central Bank will have to take dramatic action if it is to avoid a long depression in the eurozone. And when it does, the euro will come down to earth with a massive bump, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

Late in 1958, Per Jacobsson, the very distinguished economist and then managing director of the International Monetary Fund, had a conversation with General de Gaulle. When he reported the talk later, he said he had given the general a vital piece of advice: "I do not think," he said, "that there will ever be esteem for a country that has a bad currency".

He went on to explain recent French monetary policy like this: "In 1802 Napoleon gave France the gold franc. And this gold franc remained unchanged until 1914 to the outbreak of the First World War. It survived the two lost Napoleonic wars; the war of 1870-71; it survived the revolutions of 1830 and 1848; and all the changes of government during the Third Republic."

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.