The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire (61 page)

In a seven-minute YouTube video
:
David Weigel, “The Man behind the Quantitative Easing Cartoon Speaks!”
Slate,
November 22, 2010.

“The Federal Reserve . . . is not a repair shop”
:
Kevin M. Warsh, “The New Malaise and How to End It,”
Wall Street Journal,
November 8, 2010.

Bernanke had in fact . . . urged Fed staff
:
Neil Irwin, “Federal Reserve Weighs Steps to Offset Slowdown in Economic Recovery,”
Washington Post,
July 8, 2010.

“Good afternoon, everybody”
:
“Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve,” redacted transcript, March 7, 2012, 491, http://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/files/2007-2010-draft-fomc-transcript-excerpts.pdf.

“Calls w/media”
:
Chairman’s Calendar, November 2010, obtained through Freedom of Information Act request to Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

“One myth that’s out there”
:
60 Minutes,
transcript, CBS News, December 5, 2010.

“I’m a little bit more sympathetic to central bankers now”
:
Ben Bernanke, press conference, Federal Reserve, Washington, DC, June 22, 2011.

CHAPTER 16: THE CHOPPER, THE TROIKA, AND THE DEAUVILLE DEBACLE

“ready to rip up the books”
:
Fiach Kelly, “The Day ‘Chopper’ Rolled into Town,”
Irish Independent,
November 19, 2010.

“I’m not used to a situation where I’m so recognizable”
:
Declan Lynch, “Paddy Gets His Answer to the Only Question That Matters,”
Sunday Independent,
December 5, 2010.

“nobody was really sure what the international officials looked like”
:
Kelly, “The Day ‘Chopper' Rolled into Town.”

“nice welcoming lounge”
:
Finbarr Flyn, “Ryanair CEO Says $823 Million Dublin Terminal Explains Why Nation ‘Broke,’”
Bloomberg News
, November 19, 2010.

As the
Independent
headlined a letter to the editor
:
Walter Naugton, “Better Chopra Than Our Hopeless Lot,”
Irish Independent,
November 22, 2010, http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/better-chopra-than-our-hopeless-lot-2429998.html.

“I guess older people will be upset”
:
Henry McDonald, Elena Moya, and Andrew Clark, “From Defiance to Capitulation: Six Days That Humbled Ireland,”
Guardian,
Nov. 20, 2010.

By the last week of August
:
“Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 27 August 2010,” press release, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany, August 27, 2010, http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/wfs/2010/html/fs100831.en.html.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s not talk around it”
:
Angela Merkel, “Laudatio der Bundeskanzelerin der Bundesrepublic Deutschland,” speech, Aachen, Germany, May 13, 2010, translated by Carlo Bastasin in
Saving Europe: How National Politics Nearly Destroyed the Euro
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2012), 219.

They met at the Hotel Royal
:
Bastasin,
Saving Europe,
236.

“providing the necessary arrangements”
:
“Franco-German Declaration: Statement for the France-Germany-Russia,” summit, Deauville, France, October 18, 2010, http://www.euo.dk/upload/application/pdf/1371f221/Franco-german_declaration.pdf.

At just after 5 p.m.
:
Charles Forelle, David Gauthier-Villars, Brian Blackstone, and David Enrich, “As Ireland Flails, Europe Lurches across the Rubicon,”
Wall Street Journal,
December 27, 2010, A1.

“We’re more or less used to Germany and France cooking things up”
:
Joshua Chaffin and Peter Spiegel, “Franco-German Bail-out Pact Divides EU,”
Financial Times,
October 24, 2010.

“You’re going to destroy the euro!”
:
Forelle et al., “As Ireland Flails.”

“We must be clear about how the markets work”
:
Bastasin,
Saving Europe,
239.

“The IMF does not make necessarily the ex-ante working assumption”
:
Jean-Claude Trichet and Vitor Constancio, “Introductory statement with Q&A,” speech, Frankfurt, Germany, November 4, 2010, http://www.ecb.int/press/pressconf/2010/html/is101104.en.html.

By November 2010
:
Universität Osnabrück, Euro Crisis Monitor, http://www.iew.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/8959.htm.

“it is not a normal situation”
:
Trichet and Constancio, “Introductory statement.”

“We took all the opportunities”
:
Arthur Beesley, “Ireland’s Meltdown Is the Outcome of the Policies of Its Elected Politicians,”
Irish Times,
January 15, 2011, 11.

“I don’t believe there were any other real options”
:
James G. Neuger and Simon Kennedy, “Ireland Gets $113 Billion Bailout as EU Ministers Seek to Halt Debt Crisis,”
Bloomberg News
, November 29, 2010.

“The heads of state or government of the euro area”
:
“European Council 16–17 December 2010 Conclusions,” transcript, Brussels, Belgium, January 25, 2011, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/118578.pdf.

“A Luta é Alegria”
:
Susana Morela Marques, “Portugal’s Eurovision Protest,”
Guardian,
May 2, 2011.

“The only work we can get is ‘work experience’”
:
Peter Wise, “Portugal’s ‘Desperate Generation’ Cries Out,”
Financial Times,
March 11, 2011.

“Enough is enough!”
:
“Greece: Clashes in Athens between Police and Protesters,”
BBC News
, May 11, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13356923.

The suicide rate in Greece in 2011
:
Erik Kirschbaum, “Suicides Have Greeks on Edge before Election,” Reuters, April 28, 2012.

Tensions between the troika and Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government
:
Bastasin,
Saving Europe,
275.

“The package that is there”
:
Jussi Rosendahl and Terhi Kinnunen, “Populist Party Surges in Finn Poll, EU Aid at Risk,” Reuters, April 17, 2011.

“The euro area needs someone who can change his mind”
:
Jean-Philippe LaCour, Karl Meyer, and Dominique Seux, “BCE: Conflit Paris-Berlin en vue sur la succession de Trichet” [ECB: Paris-Berlin Conflict for the Succession of Trichet],
Les Echos,
January 18, 2011, 8.

“Of course she is angry”
:
Veit Medick and Philipp Wittrock, “Weber’s Departure Undermines Merkel’s EU Clout,”
Der Spiegel,
February 11, 2011.

“Please, not this Italian!”
:
Quentin Peel, “Draghi Wins Over German Newspaper,”
Financial Times,
April 29, 2011.

“both come from orderly nations”
:
Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, “Europe’s Next Top Banker May Be Italian,”
Der Speigel,
February 23, 2011.

“at second glance it is clear”
:
Peel, “Draghi Wins Over German Newspaper.”

“He is very much in line with our ideas”
:
Stephen Castle and Jack Ewing, “Merkel Signals Support for Italian to Lead ECB,”
New York Times
, May 11, 2011.

“I will only say that we are responsible for ensuring price stability”
:
Trichet and Constancio, “Introductory statement.”

CHAPTER 17: THE PRESIDENT OF EUROPE

“We are dying”
:
Renee Maltezou, “Greek Police Clash with Anti-austerity Protesters,” Reuters, February 23, 2011.

“seriously damage faith in the functioning of the euro zone”
:
Christian Reiermann, “Greece Considers Exit from Euro Zone,”
Der Spiegel,
May 7, 2011.

“We had Wall Street open at that point in time”
:
Charles Forelle, “Luxembourg Lies on Secret Meeting,”
Real Time Brussels (
blog),
Wall Street Journal,
May 9, 2011, http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/05/09/luxembourg-lies-on-secret-meeting/.

At 12:06 p.m. on Saturday, May 14
:
Christopher Dickey and John Solomon, “The Strauss-Kahn Timeline,”
Newsweek
, July 24, 2011.

At 4:40 p.m., Port Authority police
:
Dan Bilefsky, “The French Reaction to IMF Chief’s Arrest,”
Lede (
blog),
New York Times,
May 15, 2011, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/the-french-reaction-to-i-m-f-chiefs-arrest/.

Strauss-Kahn’s sexual appetites had gotten him in trouble three years earlier
:
Landon Thomas Jr., “Woman in 2008 Affair Is Said to Have Accused IMF Director of Coercing Her,”
New York Times,
May 16, 2011.

“The view that seems to be taking hold”
:
George Georgiopoulos and Harry Papachristou, “IMF Says Greece Must ‘Reinvigorate’ Reform Drive,” Reuters, May 18, 2011.

Papandreou was particularly proud of his strategy of using Google Earth
:
Daniel Steinvorth, “Greek Government Hauls Billions in Back Taxes,”
Der Spiegel,
August 2, 2010, http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/.

“To this demonstrably mistaken recipe I will not agree”
:
Elena Becatoros, “Greek Opposition Party Rejects New Austerity Plan,”
Associated Press
, May 24, 2011.

“I didn’t come to discuss the looting of Greek society”
:
Ibid.

“We will all require assurances”
:
Stephen Castle, “IMF Gets Tough with Europe; Aid to Greece Withheld for Now,”
International Herald Tribune,
June 21, 2011, 3.

In Syntagma Square
:
Renee Maltezou and Harry Papachristou, “Greek Police Battle Rioters as Austerity Bill Passed,” Reuters, June 29, 2011.

“We are not in favor of restructuring and haircuts”
:
Jean-Claude Trichet, press conference, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany, June 9, 2011, http://www.ecb.int/press/pressconf/2011/html/is110609.en.html.

“a sovereign default or disorderly bank failures”
:
Antonio Borges and Aasim Husain, “IMF Country Report No. 11/184,” working paper, Staff Report for the 2011 Article IV Consultation with Member Countries, European Department, Washington, DC, July 1, 2011, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2011/cr11184.pdf.

“Any talk of restructuring was a total taboo”
:
Landon Thomas Jr. and Stephen Castle, “The Denials That Trapped Greece,”
New York Times
, November 5, 2011.

“There was shock and surprise on their faces”
:
Thomas Jr., 2011.

At about 1 a.m., Trichet, Merkel, and Sarkozy called Brussels
:
Carlo Bastasin,
Saving Europe: How National Politics Nearly Destroyed the Euro
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2012), 294.

“banker war room”
:
Klaus C. Engelen, “Ackermann’s Banker War Room
,” International Economy
Summer (2011): 62.

“With this offer”
:
“Greece Financing Offer: Statement by IIF Board of Directors,” official statement, Institute of International Finance, Brussels, Belgium, July 21, 2011, http://www.iif.com/press/press+198.php.

According to calculations by economist and journalist Carlo Bastasin
:
Bastasin,
Saving Europe,
287.

“The full liberalisation of local public services”
:
“Trichet e Draghi: un’azione pressante per ristabilire la fiducia degli investitori,”
Corriere della Sera,
September 29, 2011, http://www.corriere.it/economia/11_settembre_29/.

the Governing Council met again on the afternoon of Sunday, August 7
:
Peter Müller et al., “Breaking Taboos: Concerns Mount in Germany over ECB Bond Buys
,” Der Spiegel,
August 15, 2011.

“Our hearts pour with blood”
:
Giulia Segreti, “Rome Orders €45 Billion in Cuts and Taxes,”
Financial Times,
August 12, 2011.

“Here’s the real problem with Italy”
:
Anthony Faiola, “Amid Crisis, Italy Confronts a Culture of Tax Evasion,”
Washington Post,
November 24, 2011.

as the ECB bought
:
European Central Bank Press Release Database, bond purchase data, http://www.ecb.int/press/.