Last week, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy has given new impetus to thalidomide research.

“The euro became a strong currency with very small interest rate spreads [on government bonds]. It was like some kind of sleeping pill, some kind of drug. We weren’t aware of the underlying problems.”, [said EU president Herman Van Rompuy]

(Van Rompuy says strong euro hid underlying fiscal problems

By Tony Barber in Brussels

Financial Times, Published: June 14 2010 03:00 | Last updated: June 14 2010 03:00

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5387ff54-774b-11df-ba79-00144feabdc0.html

Ivo Cerckel
honestmoney@maktoob.com

EU president Herman Van Rompuy confessed that EMU lured countries into a fatal trap. “It was like some kind of sleeping pill, some kind of drug. We weren’t aware of the underlying problems,” he said.

(Gold reclaims its currency status as the global system unravels

We already know that the eurozone money markets seized up violently in early May as incipient bank runs spread from Greece to Portugal and Spain, threatening the first big sovereign default of our era. Jean-ClaudeTrichet, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), talked days later of “the most difficult situation since the Second World War, and perhaps the First”. 

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Published: 5:43PM BST 20 Jun 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7841961/Gold-reclaims-its-currency-status-as-the-global-system-unravels.html