our own niall ferguson. [applause] now to my immediate left our second debaters speaking in favor of tonight's motion brings a vital perspective. the view of the german people on the fast-moving eurozone crisis. he is the publisher of the prestigious german weeklies iced, germans at equivalent of "time" magazine are canada's own maclean's, the author of numerous best-selling books of geopolitics including goober power, america's material temptation and his analysis of geopolitical events appears regularly in "the new york times" in the new republic and the london times literary supplement. representing europe's goober power tonight in this contest ladies and gentlemen, josef joff. [applause] the story of daniel cohn-bendit in many ways is synonymous with european experiments. born in france in 1945, his german and jewish parents who fled nazi germany. mr. cohn-bendit burst upon the european scene in the 1960's as a key leader of the student revolts in france. half a century later, he remains fondly known as

we've got professor of history at harvard university, niall ferguson, his new piece is in the new issueeurope could cost obama the election." niall, we get a sense of talking to several people that have been dealing with the european situation, that the next week or two are very critical to what's going on, not only in greece but also across the entire eurozone. what can you tell us? >> well, you probably assumed that the election in november will be decided in, i don't know, ohio or florida, but i think there's good reason to think it could be decided in greece or spain. i've spent the last four weeks traveling around europe since the end of harvard classes and it's pretty scary. it's a complex story if you follow it closely, like the worst soap opera you ever watched, but right now, a bit of breathing space in spain, little bit of breathing space in spain for the banks there. but we have a greek election coming up that could blow a hole in the european monetary union and i think this is the key point, joe, all that is happening here, the way it is increasing uncertainty in global mark

i would sign the article from niall ferguson of "the financial times." we have to go on. now, the problem is that germany will say no, no. she wants to get the fiscal compact. she needs a certain majority. she needs the votes of the social democrats and the greens. and the greens and social democrats say we have to make a step for more solidarity, redemption fund, it's call ed o part of the debt. second, then you get euro obligation. second -- and get europe and there germany. we need a common future. and i want to say it is going in this direction. what i can't understand, it's knowing the european history. of course it is very difficult but we are in a situation in europe where really we see that the majority of the population wants to go forward even if they are afraid. he is right cht france and holland voted against the project. you're right because we made mistake. i never said europe didn't make mistake. i just say because the crisis is like this the step out of the crisis is more euro and now we are debating. it is an interesting and complicated debate how to do i

now, who is the true niall ferguson, may i ask? >> so peter, can i have a second? since that article -- >> may the 2nd, 2012. >> and since that article -- >> three weeks ago. three weeks ago. >> since that article -- since that article has been published, have you heard anything from the german government to suggest that any of those things have happened? >> i've heard a lot from you tonight. exactly the opposite of what you were arguing three weeks ago. >> we've all agreed that you want to hear from the audience. so i'm going to try to -- >> not a single thing -- not a single thing. >> ladies and gentlemen, help me here. applaud. let's move on to the questions. well done. this is certainly a lively debate. the first question is going to come from a good friend. she's well known to a lot of us. she's cnbc's senior business correspondent reporter, on-air personality. >> tough act to follow. the question is for niall, and i'll build on joseph's analogy of the mountain climb. do you strive tore the summit. i think many mountain climbers will tell you as many die on th

in the balance but this is the reason why you have headlines coming out from commentators like niall ferguson saying if there's going to be a lehman moment in this crisis it's going to be next week and that i think is why everybody is so concerned and has their eyes on greece. scary and you know understatement of the year to say that we know the politicians don't always abide by the promises they make when they're campaigning so i want to switch over a little bit to what we saw going on here this weekend to you know i know that you guys had coverage on it we did a lot of coverage on these jamie dimon hearings on even know why i don't know why this even shocks me it shocked rises me anymore in terms of how easy members of congress are on him but i mean is there anything that we can point to did we learn anything more about the fail whale deal at least from this grilling or just that congress likes to you know kiss a lot of but when it doesn't mean a dime and showing up in front of them well first i'm with you i was surprised even at the lack of an attempt to look like you're putting on good po

our own niall ferguson. [applause] >> to my immediate left our second debater speaking again in favor of tonight's motion brings a vital perspective, the view of the german people on the fast moving euro zone crisis. he is the publisher of the prestigious jerman weekly, germany's equivalent of "time" magazine or canada's own mclean's. he's the author of numerous best-selling books on geopolitics, including uber power, america's imperial temptation, his analysis of geopolitical events appears regularly everywhere from "the new york times," the new republic, he lon times literary supplement. representing europe's uber power tonight in this contest, ladies and gentlemen, josef joffe. [applause] >> the story of daniel many in ways is synonymous with the european experiment. born in france in 1945 to german and jewish parents, who had fled nazi germany, mr. kohn-bendit burst upon the european scene in the 1960's as a key leader of the student revolts in france. half a century later he remains fondly known as dann

niall ferguson who teaches at harvard has pointed out that every culture has its cannon. that's the basic truth somewhere. . guest: so the relevant advantage of unions in many places are on defense and they deserve to be on defense. my own experience as secretary of education, i determined that said often that i found the unions to be reactionary and aggressive. they were not interested in pushing forward with serious reform and accountability. maining accountable, there were good teachers and pay them more. host: coming up later in this program, randi weingarten will be joining us from new york. guest: she'll disagree with me. host: robin has this point saying the fed is putting money to buy treasuries keeping rates low and causing my grocery bills to skyrocket. the president is the biggest government spender in world history from "forbes" magazine. guest: i suspect that's true if you look at the numbers. spending is one thing and myopia is something else, failure to see the whole picture. i don't want to jump on this president in the thing that every republican has jump

niall ferguson and marie already have raised the specter is of a 19 at 30 -- nouriel roubini have raised like recession. we hosted josef ackerman who said eurozone will make it through intact. we hosted christian lagarde, now head of the imf, who was arguing for a much more urgent approach sang time is running out for a much broader crisis. we have new rules on hedge funds and other forms of financial interaction. we have the establishment of european stability and financial mechanisms to provide emergency funding. we have enhanced the banking including a new agency in london. the fiscal compact, which reinforces this is in the four -- in the process of being ratified and we have two responses currently under discussion with even greater banking supervision for banking unions as the neutralization of debt. despite all of this, the crisis persists. indeed, as one seems to ease, one country moves away from the brink and another one comes to the forefront. if not greece, then it is spain, italy, or perhaps france. the eurozone as a whole has some strong economic fundamentals. the deficit as

now, who is the true niall ferguson, may i ask? [applause] may 2, 2012. three weeks ago. three weeks ago. [applause] >> since that article has been published, have you heard anything from the german government to suggest any of those things -- >> not tonight. answer the question. arguing three weeks ago. >> do you want to hear from the audience? >> i do. >> come on. come on. >> not a single thing. not a single thing. >> applaud. let's move on to the questions. well done. [applause] >> certainly a lively debate. the first question is going to come from a good friend, she's well-known to a lot of us. she's cbc's senior business correspondent, reporter, onair personality, you're up. >> tough act to follow. the question is for niall. i facing the summit. i think mountain climbers say more is dying on the way down as on the way up. is it more sensible to press on to closer monetary and political union rather than retreat with all of the losses that might -- that might entail? >> well, as peter has just pointed out, i have been arguing for sometime now that these steps need to

our own niall ferguson. [applause] now to my immediate left our second debaters speaking in favor of tonight's motion brings a vital perspective. the view of the german people on the fast-moving eurozone crisis. he is the publisher of the prestigious german weeklies iced, germans at equivalent of "time" magazine are canada's own maclean's, the author of numerous best-selling books of geopolitics including goober power, america's material temptation and his analysis of geopolitical events appears regularly in "the new york times" in the new republic and the london times literary supplement. representing europe's goober power tonight in this contest ladies and gentlemen, josef joff. [applause] the story of daniel cohn-bendit in many ways is synonymous with european experiments. born in france in 1945, his german and jewish parents who fled nazi germany. mr. cohn-bendit burst upon the european scene in the 1960's as a key leader of the student revolts in france. half a century later, he remains fondly known as