As the Group of 20 meets to seek common ground on protectionism, this year’s euro crisis will hover over their deliberations. The crisis that erupted in Greece has again exposed the fragility of a key element of currency-pooling arrangements: the important value created by a pooling of interests tends to be distributed disproportionately in favour of the financially less collegial members of the pool. Thus, unless restrained, too often, some members will try to exploit their advantage, as Greece brazenly did in recent years.
20國集團(G20)已經召開,尋找在保護主義問題上的共同立場。在各方商議過程中,今年發生的歐元危機將是一個繞不開的話題。在希臘爆發的這場危機,再次暴露出「貨幣共享機制」(currency-pooling arrangement)的一個關鍵要素的脆弱性:利益共享所帶來的重要價值,在成員間往往分佈不均,對財政上不那麼「合羣」的成員有利。因而,除非加以約束,否則一些成員往往會設法利用他們的優勢。近些年希臘就是厚著臉皮這麼幹的。