U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has a message for the European Union: use public tax dollars to bail out your banks.

Speaking in Paris on Tuesday, Lew encouraged the EU—which responded to the 2008 financial crash by imposing devastating austerity cuts to social safety nets and and slashing public expenditures—to create shared institutions to save failing banks.

"The more capital that there is in European banks, and the stronger the backstops are, the better it is for the European economy, the U.S. economy and the world economy," he said.

According to a Reuters analysis, Lew's Tuesday speech is part of a two day tour —that also includes Berlin and Lisbon—to "convey concerns about the euro zone's need to revitalize banks crippled by a debt crisis."

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