Why Europe is much more fragile than anyone thinks

Economists are spending too much time concentrating on things they can count. Meanwhile, says Merryn Somerset Webb Europe is starting to crumble.

150618-europe

Russell Napier is one of MoneyWeek's favourite strategists. And in his Solid Ground Fortnightly, he has had a look at the things we're not thinking about in Europe. I'm worried about the redistributory and social effects of quantitative easing, and about the shock effects of Greece leaving the euro. But he is thinking more of Europe as a whole, and the attempts to create clearing prices in a federal whole.

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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.