How Macron gamed the EU Covid fund

There are not that many advantages to electing a former investment banker as president. They are often aloof. They don’t have much in the way of a common touch. And they have a sense of entitlement that blinds them to their failings. There is, however, always this to make up for all that. They know how to make a bond issue work for the bottom line. And in designing a ‘rescue fund’ to get the EU through the Covid-19 crisis, France’s President Macron, an alumnus of Rothschild & Cie, has put some of those skills to work.

Earlier this week, Macron announced a deal with Germany’s Angela Merkel to create a €500 billion (£450 billion) European Union rescue fund for coping with the coronavirus crisis. It came complete with lots of grand talk of ‘solidarity’ and ‘burden-sharing’ among the people of Europe. The EU’s fanboys immediately hailed it as a ‘Hamilton moment’ that would, at last, create a proper European Treasury, a transfer union alongside a monetary and political one.