Two weeks ago, Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, and Axel Weber, president of the Bundesbank, held a privately met meeting with a group of economists to discuss future economic policy in the eurozone.These are normally low-key affairs hidden from public view, part of a series of dialogues the finance ministry organises twice a year. The subject on May 25 concerned questions about the economic management of the eurozone – how to deal with divergent inflation and economic growth rates among member states. of the eurozone. One of the economists present, at the meeting, on Wednesday May 25 at 5pm, was Joachim Fels, the chief European economist of Morgan Stanley, held a presentation in which he who expressed concern about the long-term sustainability of the euro. Also present there was Thomas Mayer, European economist of Deutsche Bank, who was also present, said that the eurozone would face a period of stress.

That was four days before the French France held its referendum on the European Union’s constitutional treaty. The following , On Monday, 30 May, the day after the French referendum, voted, the first report surfaced that the is meeting in at the finance ministry in Berlin had taken place. Neither Mr Eichel nor Mr Weber is understood to have commented directly on the future of the euro. But the fact idea that they were happened to be in the same room as people who did caused panic agitation in foreign exchange markets, accompanied as it was by This and subsequent reports, combined with the rejection of the European constitution by the electorates of France and then the Netherlands.