“Seen from Elsewhere” No. 153 – The coveted savings jackpot of Europeans

Dear subscribers,

The object of all desire, savings are regularly cited as a windfall with under-exploited potential, including at the European level. “Let’s recover these 300 billion euros to meet the investment needs we have in Europe”said this week the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, about the money that Europeans invest outside Europe. The formula has annoyed you, dear readers (the article was the most read on our site this week). Tackle Europeans’ grisbi? But by what right?

The expression is not very happy. But Villeroy de Galhau does not count (need it be specified?) “pick the pockets” savers. It highlights a very real problem: the inability of Europeans to create capital markets capable of attracting financing that would benefit European companies. A capital markets union project has been floundering since its launch in 2015 by the…