'There

can surely be very

few

books about economics which make one'shair stand on end. Yet this

is

the effect

of

Bernard Connolly's

The

Rotten

Heart

of

Europe.

. .

The

author

is

the top official within the EuropeanCommission direcdy responsible for

EMS

affairs. [His] account combinesextraordinary attention to detail, a broad and rigorous analysis

of

the effects

of

the

ERM

on Europe's economies, and a rare understanding

of

monetarytheory.'

Wall

Street

Journal

Europe

'The

Rotten

Heart

of

Europe

must surely now be on the reading list

of

anypolitician who wishes

to

argue about Britain's European future

...

The

days when Europe's statesmen could build currency grids and integrationtreaties over the heads

of

voters have gone for good.

Mr

Connolly has given

vivid

expression to an unease previously voiced

by

only a

few

others butwidely felt

by

many

...

The

more people like

Mr

Connolly who speak thatplain truth the better it

will

be for the Europe

of

the next century.'

The Times

'One

of

the most important books ever written about Europe.'

Knack

'The

Brussels Commission has just suspended its senior economist,Bernard Connolly, for writing a book savaging the prospects for a commoncurrency.

There

are many who now believe he should have been lauded

as

aprophet.' Editorial,

I

October 1995,

Observer

'We need to ponder how our whole ruling class has turned so flabby sincethe fall

of

Margaret Thatcher

...

he story has now been bravely told by thehead

of

Brussels' own Unit

of

the European Monetary System. Connollydetails how the

ERM

was devised in their own interests

by

elite Frenchbureaucrats.' Norman Macrae,

Sunday

Times

'Connolly has spun a surprisingly gripping yarn.'

Financial

Times

Bernard Connolly was born in Manchester in 1949, and studied at Oxford.

He

has worked on Wall Street, and for

six

years from 1989 was the head

of

the European Commission responsible for analysis

of

the EuropeanMonetary System and national and Community money policies.

On

publication

of

the hardback edition

of

this book he was suspended from hisjob and subsequendy sacked.

He

is

widely regarded

by

academics andbankers

as

the foremost practical expert on the interaction

of

politics andeconomics in European monetary affairs. Now an economic consultantinfluential in both London and New York, he

is

in constant demand forarticles, press,

TV

and radio interviews and speeches throughout Europeand North America.