Google chairman: ‘You can’t just have austerity’

The meeting of 27 EU countries in Brussels is focusing on Greece’s debt crisis and how to get Europe growing again in the face of austerity measures.

Speaking at Google’s annual Big Tent event, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told Channel 4 News that struggling European economies could not “just have austerity”.

He added: “There has to be another message – I think the message should be that European governments as a group need to restructure for globalisation. They need to change the way the governments are operating, the power of various vested interests so they can be globally competitive.

“There’s every reason to believe that these are economies that could produce enormous numbers of world satisfying goods.

“There are alternative models that people can adopt which have greater labour mobility, more economic productivity, greater labour investment, greater investment in business and that’s how you grow out of this.”

‘I didn’t buy Facebook shares’

As the US Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed it would examine “issues” regarding Facebook’s $16bn Initial Public Offering (IPO), Eric Schmidt said, with a smile on his face, that he had not bought any Facebook shares.

The social network has suffered a turbulent time since its much-anticipated floatation on Friday with share prices falling to $31 on Tuesday.

Eric Schmidt said it would “take months before Facebook’s proper share price was established”.

Google is in a minority of companies whose share price did not dip after flotation.

“We went public eight years earlier under a different set of market situations, but for something which is brand new no one really knows the intrinsic value of these shares until there’s enough float and enough users.”

Read more: What does Google know about you?

‘We’re just all better off with better education’

Google has announced it will fund more than 100 science teachers in the UK over the next three years, with the majority focussed on computer science.

Mr Schmidt told Channel 4 News the company was “putting its money where its mouth is” by investing in British education.

“We’re just all better off with better education. Britain is better off if the continent is better educated, the US is better off if Britain and the continent is educated and we’re all better off if Asia is educated.

“Education is the answer to so many problems in the world – how can you possibly be opposed to it.”

Privacy problems

Asked about the security flaws recently exposed in apps available on the Android market, Mr Schmidt said: “Within the limits, we do what we can…but we believe in a more open app market.

He added that one of the core issues about this kind of technology is that it is naturally invasive of privacy.

“Since computers have almost perfect memories, more and more information about you is being aggregated in public in many cases because you’re choosing to post it on places like Facebook and I think this is a new problem for society.

“The lack of a delete button on the internet is an issue and it will ultimately be solved by a set of changes in social behaviour as well as more regulation I think.”