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In this talk,

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let's take a break from economics
and talk a little bit about aesthetics,

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the aesthetics of the euro.

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Why is the euro so bland?

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Let's take a look at some
of the currencies that the euro replaced.

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This beautiful note from Austria features
one of the founders of quantum physics,

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Erwin Schrödinger.

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Is Schrödinger's cat alive? 
Or is Schrödinger's cat dead?

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Very cool.

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Here's a favorite of mine
because it features an economist,

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the devastating critic of Karl Marx,

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Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.

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One of the deutsche marks
featured Carl Gauss,

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creator of the normal distribution,
also called the Gaussian distribution.

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And look, there it is,

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the Gaussian distribution.

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Isn't that awesome?

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And here, of course, 
we have an Italian lira,

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featuring, no surprise,

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beautiful women.

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Wonderful.

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Now, let's compare it with the euro.

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This is the 200 euro note.

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I don't know. Is that a doorway?

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Totally boring.

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What else do we have?

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Here's another euro note,

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perhaps the most bland
and boring of them all.

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Some kind of building on the front.

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But this building could be anywhere.

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And thus, it's really nowhere.

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Notice, however, that the blandness,
the boringness of the euro,

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this wasn't a design bug, 
it was a design feature.

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They didn't want to put Gauss on the euro

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because Gauss was perceived 
as a German, not as a European.

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Thus, there was no common culture,

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there was no common identity.

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There was no common ideas

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which the euro,
in its design, could express.

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So, perhaps in aesthetics,

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we have a little precursor,

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a little prediction of some
of the economic problems of the euro.

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Transcriber: Michel Smits
Reviewer: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka