The financial crisis may hasten European integration but slow global banking

The liabilities of the biggest US bank equal half the US tax revenues; the ratios in Europe are bigger. Deutsche Bank’s liabilities are one and a half times Germany’s annual tax revenue; Barclays' are twice Britain’s. This crisis will either leave European financial integration in tatters or quicken the development of European fiscal capacity. European integration is a historical process that routinely stumbles upon crises that threaten to destroy it, only to find that it has been deepened by the crisis.

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