Stephen Harper Quotes

It is obvious that the monetary union among 17 very different European countries does not work. As an economist, I know that the Eurozone is not an optimum currency area, as defined in economic theory.

The goal of the government is to guarantee the place of Greece in the eurozone against those who want to undermine it.

There is a European Central Bank, of course, established and it has the structure similar to the Federal Reserve system, not precisely the same but similar.

We made a decision that monetary policy will be made by an independent European Central Bank.

Britain is not in the single currency, and we're not going to be. But we all need the eurozone to have the right governance and structures to secure a successful currency for the long term.

We need to put in place an economic system of governance for the euro-zone.

Indeed, the creators of the euro envisioned it as an instrument to promote political union.

Our eurozone partners have made it clear: The choice is between staying in or getting out of the eurozone.

In the end, the politics of the euro zone weren't strong enough to create a fully integrated fiscal union with a common banking system, etc.

It's in our interests that the euro is a successful, strong currency.

If European monetary policy is run according to German interests, huge structural imbalances will accumulate. The Germans will then either have to pay to correct those imbalances or agree that the euro should not be run primarily according to German interests. If they are unwilling to do either of those things, the euro can't survive.

The euro is going to continue to be the largest single trading block.

The most important thing is to defend the euro.

We have no intention of leaving the euro. In no way will we experiment with the future of our country.

The 1992 crisis proved that the existing system was unstable. Not moving forward to the euro would have set up Europe for even more disruptive crises.

It is a responsibility we perceive from the entire international community to protect the stability of the single currency as well as the European frame work.

The bottom line is that the euro is a failed experiment.

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances.

Instead, there were a variety of controls of which some could be influenced by bankers, some could be influenced by the government, and some could hardly be influenced by either.

Interest rates do not have to be identical across the whole euro area, but it is unacceptable if major differences arise from broken capital markets or concern about a euro area break-up.

Markets themselves are looking for stability, and I think we have underestimated the capacity of Europe... to actually create a more stable framework for the whole issue of debt management, bonds, and so on.

The organization of the government itself is something which we ought to examine in a more self-conscious way - the Federal Reserve and the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The mission that each of them has is mainly economic but should be informed by good organizational practices.

There are plenty of ways countries may come together without having a single currency.

The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value.

Give me the power to issue a nation’s money; then I do not care who makes the laws.