Nobel winner "can't believe anyone's serious" about EU

REYKJAVIK Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps has warned against the dangers of European Union membership, bloomberg.com has reported. Speaking as Iceland moved to temporarily halt its bid to join the EU, Phelps commended the decision. Nobel winner "can't believe anyone's serious" about EU Iceland's new Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson announced earlier this week he did not wish his country to join a bloc in crisis as his own economy recovers. Since emerging from its 2008 banking meltdown, Iceland's economy has outpaced the eurozone's and the government has tapped international debt markets twice, the report said. “We’re still learning about the European experiment and to what extent it’s going to succeed. The possibility is not foreclosed that the experiment is going to prove unworkable, unsuccessful," Phelps was quoted as saying. The appeal the EU once held to nations seeking economic stability and access to free trade is crumbling as the region fails to emerge from its crisis, the website noted in its report, and added that Britain was now "openly questioning its allegiance with the EU while other members like Denmark have distanced themselves from the goal of euro adoption to protect their economies." “I can’t believe that anybody’s serious about joining the EU right now. It’s like saying, ‘it’s a beautiful house - it happens to be on fire at the moment - we should buy it!’," said Phelps, who won the Nobel Economics Prize in 2006 for his theories on the interplay between inflation expectations and unemployment. This expert also questioned the future of the euro and the larger EU after three years of debt crisis have left five nations relying on bailouts, Bloomberg reported. “It’s clear that there are huge blanks, huge gaps, in what they’ve done so far in the euro area. We’re seeing now that each country is subject to a flight of capital, currency flight; flight out of the currency, flight out of bank deposits into other countries," Phelps said. (Beta/AP, file) Bloomberg.com

Nobel winner "can't believe anyone's serious" about EU

Iceland's new Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson announced earlier this week he did not wish his country to join a bloc in crisis as his own economy recovers.

Since emerging from its 2008 banking meltdown, Iceland's economy has outpaced the eurozone's and the government has tapped international debt markets twice, the report said.

“We’re still learning about the European experiment and to what extent it’s going to succeed. The possibility is not foreclosed that the experiment is going to prove unworkable, unsuccessful," Phelps was quoted as saying.

The appeal the EU once held to nations seeking economic stability and access to free trade is crumbling as the region fails to emerge from its crisis, the website noted in its report, and added that Britain was now "openly questioning its allegiance with the EU while other members like Denmark have distanced themselves from the goal of euro adoption to protect their economies."

“I can’t believe that anybody’s serious about joining the EU right now. It’s like saying, ‘it’s a beautiful house - it happens to be on fire at the moment - we should buy it!’," said Phelps, who won the Nobel Economics Prize in 2006 for his theories on the interplay between inflation expectations and unemployment.

This expert also questioned the future of the euro and the larger EU after three years of debt crisis have left five nations relying on bailouts, Bloomberg reported.

“It’s clear that there are huge blanks, huge gaps, in what they’ve done so far in the euro area. We’re seeing now that each country is subject to a flight of capital, currency flight; flight out of the currency, flight out of bank deposits into other countries," Phelps said.