For 30 years, whenever economic crises hit the world, Jean-Claude Trichet has been at the centre of the action. As his career draws to a close – his eight-year term as European Central Bank president ends in three weeks – the former French finance official and Banque de France governor is in the midst of his biggest crisis yet.
“It is undoubtedly a historical event of the first magnitude, the worst financial crisis since the second world war,” he exclaims. “It could have produced a Great Depression had appropriate decisions not been taken at the appropriate time.”
At its epicentre is the 17-nation eurozone. The bloc’s leaders are scrambling to assemble a rescue package that will finally restore the stability of Europe’s 13-year-old monetary union. In an interview with the Financial Times, however, Mr Trichet sees the crisis as broader – as a crisis of the west. “All advanced economies are being X-rayed by the present crisis and revealing their skeletons and the weaknesses in their skeletons. It’s true for all of us – for Japan, for the US, for Europeans.”