Europe's resident bailout socialist, head of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet sat down with Liesman this morning. Trichet does not drink the common kool-aid that the Lehman failure caused the crisis. If you can stomach his accent it's worth some time. There are 3 clips and 14 total minutes.
Watch (video is below)
- “Lehman was a trigger, but you could have had another trigger. Lehman could have been saved then AIG wouldn’t have been saved, and then you would have exactly the same thing. Even if Lehman and AIG would have been saved then it would be a new entity that would have problems."
Since the fall of 2008, the global markets have tiptoed away from the brink of collapse. But danger still looms and regulatory reform is necessary to ensure history does not repeat itself, cautions Trichet.
- “It would be absolutely stupid to say now ‘business as usual, markets are functioning’ and so forth. They are functioning today because we are bound to take in the public sphere extraordinary decision. We are not authorized to do that again. I would say it would be very, very abnormal. We have to get things fixed.”
Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, tells CNBC's Steve Liesman how the global financial crisis was viewed on the other side of the pond.
CNBC's Steve Liesman asks Jeane Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, whether the motivation for regulatory reform will go away as economic conditions improve.
Click To Scroll Our List Of Recent Stories