These are strange times when one rushes to look at the latest news thinking, ‘I must find out how the yield on Italian government bonds has just responded to the Standard & Poors alert.’ However, my focal length was extended a little by reading a marvellous essay by the Princeton economic historian Harold James, The Poetry of The Euro, in which he reminds us of the history and meaning of the European project. The essay ends:

“Jean-Claude Trichet, until recently the president of the European Central Bank, liked to claim that money was like poetry, before adding that both give a sense of stability. That unusual but accurate formulation is reminiscent of General August Neidhardt von Gneisenau’s famous reply to the Prussian King, who dismissed as “nothing more than poetry” von Gneisenau’s patriotic concerns in the early nineteenth century. “Religion, prayer, love of one’s ruler, love of the fatherland, what are these but poetry?” von Gneisenau asked. “Upon poetry is founded the security of the throne.”

Stable money, too, is the foundation of political order. We should not allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by today’s crisis that we forget that.”

Reading Harold James sent me back to a brilliant book by the late Tony Judt, [amazon_link id=”009954203X” target=”_blank” ]Postwar[/amazon_link]. For those who have never read it, it would be a timely moment to do so. The context Judt gives us is the centuries-long history of conflict between different parts of Europe. Towards the end of the book, he quotes Alfonse Verplaetse, Governor of the Belgian National Bank, in 1996: “Europeans want to be sure that there is no adventure in the future. They have had too much of that.”

The real fear about this life-or-death struggle for the Euro is that it might presage an unwelcome return to the days of adventure. The crisis certainly signals that the moment of unaffordability of the European Social Model has arrived: so many members of the Eurozone could not afford the system that has been in place through the postwar era. But can the leaders shape, in the heat of the crisis, an alternative model? As Judt concludes: “Legitimacy is a function of capacity.” He was an optimist – he thought the 21st century would be the European century. Looking at the minute-by-minute headlines, it is hard to be optimistic today. I just hope Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy are taking the time to think about poetry.

[amazon_image id=”009954203X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945[/amazon_image]