Why is the euro so bland?

Why don't you see more faces on the bills?

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In this talk,

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

the aesthetics of the euro.

Why is the euro so bland?

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

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

Erwin Schrödinger.

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

Very cool.

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

the devastating critic of Karl Marx,

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.

One of the deutsche marks
featured Carl Gauss,

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

And look, there it is,

the Gaussian distribution.

Isn't that awesome?

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

featuring, no surprise,

beautiful women.

Wonderful.

Now, let's compare it with the euro.

This is the 200 euro note.

I don't know. Is that a doorway?

Totally boring.

What else do we have?

Here's another euro note,

perhaps the most bland
and boring of them all.

Some kind of building on the front.

But this building could be anywhere.

And thus, it's really nowhere.

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

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

They didn't want to put Gauss on the euro

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

Thus, there was no common culture,

there was no common identity.

There was no common ideas

which the euro,
in its design, could express.

So, perhaps in aesthetics,

we have a little precursor,

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

Transcriber: Michel Smits
Reviewer: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka