News In Brief

Euro crisis: A view from London to Los Angeles

Justin Rowlatt Nov 2, 2011

The programme I present, Business Daily, is broadcast on the BBC’s World Service and has a world agenda. But recently we’ve spent a lot of time reporting what is, in essence, a local story: the crisis in the eurozone.

We report it because the eurozone is a huge economic force in the world and because this is a really serious crisis.

Sitting here in London the economic and financial turmoil in Europe is – naturally enough – a really big deal. But the further you get from Europe, the less important it must seem.

How big an issue is it elsewhere? That’s the question I hope joining up with Marketplace for this special co-production will help us to answer.

If you were a waitress at Denny’s in Billings Montana why should you care if the Greek government is putting its austerity package to the people in a referendum?

Or, for that matter, if you were a shrimp farmer in Kampot, Cambodia, why should you care if German citizens don’t want the European bailout fund to be extended?

In short, I’m hoping that we’ll find out just how worried the rest of the world should be about the crisis in what Americans like to call “Euroland.”

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