THE FINANCIAL FORTUNE-TELLER
Since 2008, the only lists economists have been likely to find themselves on are
rankings of ‘Most Reviled in Public Life’.
That’s why Nicolas Veron’s recent inclusion as one of Bloomberg Markets
magazine’s Top 10 Thinkers for 2012 (as part of a larger list of 50 Most Influential
People of 2012) is even more remarkable. Recognised for his “early advocacy of
a banking union to tamp down the Euro-zone debt crisis,” Nicolas joins the ranks
of economic giants Paul Krugman, Daniel Kahneman and Joseph Stiglitz as a
frontrunner in global economics.
To anyone who knows Veron, though, the accolade is unsurprising.
As a Senior Fellow at prestigious Brussels-based think tank Bruegel and visiting
fellow at the equally respected Peterson Institute of International Economists,
Nicolas has been at the forefront of economic policy debate in Europe for over
a decade. His work deals with a wide range of topics, from setting up economic
standards and banking supervision to economic nationalism and overseeing
internal investment in the European Union, among others. He brings a rational
voice to what has become one of the most contentious economic discussions
globally; his approach to Europe’s financial challenges focuses on small,
executable fixes rather than sweeping, grand reforms.
Perhaps the grounding for his practical approach to policy comes from his earlier
experience on both sides of the economic battlelines; on the policy-making side
when he was a French civil servant (he served as economic aide to the Prefect
in Lille and later as corporate advisor to France’s Labour Minister); and on the
corporate side during his stints at Saint-Gobain in Berlin and Rothschilds in Paris
in the early 1990s and later as Chief Financial Officer of the publicly-listed Lycos
France a decade later.
A prolific writer – and a multi-linguist who speaks fluent French, Engish,
German and Spanish – Nicolas is co-author of Transatlantic Economic
Challenges in an Era of Growing Multipolarity (2012) and coauthor of Smoke
and Mirrors, Inc.: Accounting for Capitalism. For over seven years, he has been
writing a monthly column published by the who’s who of the financial world
including Caixin (China), Les Echos (France), FT Deutschland (Germany),
Kathimerini (Greece), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), RBC Daily (Russia),
El Economista (Spain), and Radikal (Turkey).
The Bloomberg list ranks him among a select band of people who “can move
markets and shape ideas and policies.” For now, Nicolas must be hoping to start
close to home with the EU and its contentious banking union.
