European Crisis?

The famous or infamous financial giant, George Soros, warned on Tuesday that there would be a major political and financial crisis facing Europe. He pointed out three sources of crisis: the refugee crisis, Brexit and an austerity policy. His worry is reasonable. The refugee crisis has increased the popularity of nationalism, populism and other right-wing groups across Europe, this has been proved multiple times by the French election, the Italian election more significantly. Brexit is another important issue, as Britain is a large economy in the circle of Europe and the financial centre of Europe, and even can be seen as one of the important bridges between Europe and the US. Once Britain leaves the European Union, it will definitely bring economic impacts to the European economy; moreover, it may set an example for other European countries which have the willingness to leave the European Union that the current Italy is being questioned if it is going to leave the Eurozone as well as the European Union. The austerity policy has been imposed since the Financial crisis in the hope of bringing back sustainable government expenditures for the European countries which have high national debt levels. However, the austerity policy can hardly stimulate and expand these countries’ economies, since there is almost no fuel to push these economies forward.

These threats that Soros mentioned are real, and it seems that such crisis cannot be avoided because current Europe no longer unite together and is deeply divided when the populists gain their market in the European politics.