You could argue address that in the last 30 to 40 years the UK Germany and France Were really the glue at times fighting That held Europe together Germany's now In the throes of political crisis we Don't exactly know where the coalition Is France is trying to rebuild great Europe with little success at the moment And the UK you know is going through Brexit what will be left of Europe in 5-10 years I think the I think in five Or ten years if you ask me now with my Bet is Europe will be exactly where it Is today – the UK probably I think Europe will not break apart neither will The eurozone I think the political will Is is strong I think it's interesting That the support for the euro and the European Union in most European Union Countries is at a multi-year high it's It's very strong I think the the the the Restructuring of Spain Portugal Ireland I should say the successful Restructuring post 2010 1112 is a is a Proof that the euro can work I think a Lot of people that said it can't work You can't nominally deflate Well these countries have done it and The debt to GDP ratios of these Countries are are well within within Within touching distance of the Maastricht criteria so I think I don't Detect it over whelming sense of crisis In Europe but there is a very
Significant need and that's understood To redefine what Europe means both on The global stage as well as for its Citizens okay we talk about NATO having The tools or not to deal with what's Coming next Do central banks have the tools to deal With what's coming next we have President Trump saying actually he has No deadline for the China deal it may Come in 12 months from that oh how do Central banks react to that well I think It's it's it's interesting that you Should even ask the question because 10 15 years ago we wouldn't have thought That the central banks need to be the Solution to the geopolitical problems Because they had a clear mandate control Inflation keep control of the money Supply but you're of course you're Absolutely right central banking is Becoming more politicized again and they They're definitely see themselves part Of the solution just witnessed the Comments on the ECB and what they might Be thinking about purchasing in terms of The green deeply new European green Deal I mean it doesn't get much more Political than that we don't even know That there was a mandate for that but And this is this is where it becomes Different from the last five or ten Years it is also clear that the central Bank's alone cannot do the necessary job
And I think this is where Christine Lagarde comes in we talked about this Previously on the show I think Christine Lagarde is going to try to co-opt the European political establishment to try To work on fiscal policy so that fiscal Policy and monetary policy can work in Tandem to resolve the structural growth Problems of Europe andreas where are you Positioned on Europe any equity markets I mean we're doing all this International relations today this Politics as well but at some point I've Got to put institutional money to work Can you go long Europe I think it's Definitely difficult to generalise what Is definitely the case is that European Equity assets are relatively speaking Cheap compound that with a relatively Cheap euro or let's put it differently An expensive dollar I think that make That has all the making for relative our Performance now it's very sector Specific obviously and if we're going to Go into even more trade tensions given How export orientated the European stock Market is I think there will be some Sectors not to be the car sector that Will face some challenging times
