The US government is not doing enough, in order to deal with the financial crisis but the EU is almost not doing anything in this direction as well, said Paul Krugman – a Nobel prize winner on economic for 2008. The world famous economist talk on a forum in Athens, dedicated to the global financial crisis. He also met the Prime Minister of the country Kostas Karamanlis.

“Against the global financial crisis we need to fight globally and not in a national local way. Europe is standing in front of bigger problems than is America and it needs to do more work in order to overcome it. In the US, the shrinkage of the economy is 2& and in Europe it is 2.5%,” stressed Paul Krugman in Athens. According to him, the real economy in the Euro-zone is collapsing faster than in the US.

The Nobel Prize winner characterized Europe’s measures for getting out of the crisis as nationalistic and local. He blamed the countries form the Euro-zone for the lack of synchronization when acting to strengthen the economy. Paul Krugman blamed also the European Central Bank, which according to him is acting in a more conservative way than the Federal Reserve. He also noted that the bank needs to be more decisive. The economist disappointed his listeners by saying that the US banks are in better condition than the European ones, which are opening themselves to Eastern Europe.

“This is not a regular crisis but a global one and the cooperation between the US and EU is highly necessary,” said Krugman. He also spoke of the giant in crisis AIG and revealed that many people do not know but $50 billion from State help—in other words American taxpayer’s money, which the giant received, went to European banks. Krugman characterizes Obama’s plan as an optimistic one but it is not enough, so he predicts that it will solve only ¾ of the problems of the US economy.

Paul Krugman announced that he is for measures, which encourage market search and for State investments. He called for long-term initiatives. The Nobel Prize winner admitted to some extent the panic among the people is deepening the crisis but he called for realism. “Instead of calming down the people, the governments should tell the truth about the global financial crisis,” said the economist.

Paul Krugman is an economy and international relations professor in Princeton University in the US and in London School of Economics in the UK. He is also a regular writer for the New York Times. He is famous for his studies in the field of international economy, trade theory, economic geography, and international finance. He received the Nobel Prize for his work on the Theory of new trade.