Degas The Star I

Degas The Star IDegas Star of the BalletDegas Dancer with a Bouquet of FlowersDegas Café Concert - At Les Ambassadeurs
doesn't help that the pound is wilting. Two years ago, one euro was worth just 0.65. Now, humbled by bank crashes, government bailouts and a collapsing housing market that has forced massive interest rate cuts, Europe's currency is held in euros compared to 62% in dollars.
And, he says, the euro's first decade has been characterized by budget rows and debates about the European Central Bank's monetary policy, when the focus should be on correcting big macroeconomic divergences, like Spain and Ireland's recent (and ultimately doomed) property bubbles. "The euro zone needs more ability to act in times of real crises or to prevent them," Pisani-Ferry within a pence or two of parity with the pound. "The debate has changed from a total fantasy in the U.K.," says Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. "The political obstacles still remain strong, but it has changed the perception of the U.K. as the perfect system."Pisani-Ferry says the financial crisis has been a defining moment for the euro, but he cautions against too much praise. The euro is still some way from dethroning the dollar as a global currency for example; just 27% of global foreign exchange reserves are