Mt. Holyoke Reunion

This is Vincent (Vinnie) Ferraro, Ruth C. Lawson Professor of International Politics at Mount Holyoke College, giving a fascinating talk on the European debt crisis.

The occasion is Mr. Holyoke's annual reunion this weekend of a number of their alumnae classes (my wife Marylee graduated in 1967). The chart illustrates the debt held by banks in a number of the weaker European countries owned to banks in other countries. The broad arrows pointing outwards (view it all large) are for me the most frightening--they show the the weaker countries' debt held by stronger countries (e.g. the large green arrow in the upper left indicates that "Italy owes France $511 billion or nearly 20 % of the French GDP").

Vinnie (I can't call him anything else) was terrific, and connected wonderfully with his audience. He confided that his father arrived in the US around 1910 from modest origins in Italy, and his mother was a DAR (Daughter of the American Revolution)!