We're in the euro now

The eurozone teeters on the brink of financial catastrophe, and the U.S. economy — and the 2012 election — may hang in the balance

Robert Shrum

At NYU's annual conference on American politics at Villa La Pietra in Florence, Italy, earlier this month, the conversation veered off the usual course.

More than just the contours of America's electoral landscape were discussed at this Florentine villa that once belonged to Francesco Sassetti, the Medici partner in what was Renaissance Europe's dominant bank. The debate also turned to European finances, and a subject that until now would have been regarded as an inconceivable factor in our presidential election: The strength and stability of the euro and the state of the eurozone, the 17 nations that have adopted a common continental currency.

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Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labour Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum's writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. The author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner (Simon and Schuster), he is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service.