As the English Channel gets wider so too does the Atlantic. When Barack Obama and David Cameron talked recently about the euro, the US president reprised an argument made by his predecessors. America’s interest, Mr Obama is reported to have said, resided in a strong and cohesive Europe. Britain should be part of it. The US did not want to see the prime minister left on the sidelines when the crisis subsided.
Mr Obama offered a few thoughts on how the single currency could be stabilised. The US backed the idea of eurozone bonds to underpin the creditworthiness of weaker economies. It could see the argument for a European-wide guarantee for bank deposits. Stabilising the financial system would probably require the creation of a banking union. Mr Cameron, he hoped, would play a constructive role.
