Was it envisioned for the euro to eventually become such a strong currency that it could compete with the dollar on a global level? Or was that a dream then and is it still a dream now?
I think it was an attainable dream, and it is becoming actually, in some ways, less attainable right now.
You may ask why?
Well, the dream to give credit where credit is due was not only advocated by some European officials but by some American economists, including our Institute's director, Fred Bergsten, who was way out in the front with that. Richard Portes, who teaches at London Business School, also was way out in front with that. And they were very much against the tide of people like Martin Feldstein and others in London and the United States who were very skeptical towards the euro.
At face value, the euro area is the same size in GDP as the United States, roughly speaking. The euro area does have very large and deep financial markets, although the more you look in detail, there are still some things there that differentiate it from the United States. And the euro area has delivered price stability. They have a very low rate of inflation pretty consistently. So you put those three things together, on paper it looks like the euro should be at least a very clear second to the dollar in investor's portfolios, in government reserve holdings, in how much you invoice trade like oil or planes or things like that.
But what our research finds in this book -- in particular in good chapters by Kristin Forbes and Linda Goldberg -- is the fact that if you look under the hood a bit, there is a huge shortfall between what you would expect just based on size and how much the euro is used. So there's an awful lot of trade that's still invoiced in dollars, not in euros, even between countries that are not dollar countries. There are huge amounts of financial flows that come to the United States, and the depth of European assets and financial flows is not commensurate with the size.
【解析】
本文节选自Growing Pains for the Euro。在段落一开始，作者就抛出了一个问题：欧元最终成为一种能与美元相抗衡的国际货币是不是一场梦?并指出这个期望相比曾经，正变的越来越难以实现。
文中指出，虽然欧元的确有广大的经济市场，而且通货膨胀的概率也较小，但是通过研究发现，如果一旦深探，就会看到期望值与欧元的实际使用率之间存在着巨大差额，以致在一些非美元使用区中，流通的货币仍然为美元。
本文的题材虽然为考生比较惧怕的经济类，但是如果能够听懂首段作者的提问，以及之后作者的态度I think it was an attainable dream, and it is becoming actually, in some ways, less attainable right now，就不难马上领悟全文的主旨。
