I came across an interesting article signed by Paul Krugman (Nobel price of Economics, Princeton Professor and NY Times columnist) drawing a detailed picture of the Euro crisis.
Key take out is that the Euro zone who recently showed alarming sings of weaknesses will have a hard time, if ever, operate and perform as its American counterpart, the "Dollar Zone" (The United States of America) as it lacks essential elements of a normally functioning monetary union: Federal authorities able to support performance of weaker links, an integrated fiscal system as well as cultural binds- strong reference to language.
A parallel is drawn between two members of both "Economic Zones": The state of Nevada in the US and Ireland in EU to show how the notion of being part of a Nation makes one member better off in similar crisis scenarios A second one is drawn between the management of the current euro crisis and Argentina's confidence crisis (Early year 2000) that resulted in a devaluation of the then pegged pesos against the USD.
More interesting comparisons and examples are featured in the article.
However, the article is looked at, it is pretty clear that Krugman either predicts a dead end to the EU Zone or decades of austerity for little economic rewards; as he mentions quoting Barry Eichengreen of Berkeley: "Any euro-zone country that even hinted at leaving the currency would trigger a devastating run on its banks, as depositors rushed to move their funds to safer locales"
I am personally of the idea that the Euro was mainly a longtime wish; an idealistic aspiration carried by Schuman and the other founding fathers over the years and passed over to decades of political leaders adamant to make their "mentors" dreams come true.
Lots of the Economic implications were, voluntarily or not- is another debate-, put aside for the benefit of a will becoming increasingly general to make a longstanding project finally come to live.
European leaders can, in my views, should either look a ways to increase country’s integration, participation into the project or look at ways to cautiously release the binds of a project that many believe was doomed to fail before it had even started…
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