O’ Rourke, K., (2014), “Whither the Euro?”, IMF Publications, 28 Φεβρουαρίου.
The euro area economy is in a terrible mess. In December 2013 euro area GDP was still 3 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2008, in stark contrast with the United States, where GDP was 6 percent higher. GDP was 8 percent below its precrisis level in Ireland, 9 percent below in Italy, and 12 percent below in Greece. Euro area unemployment exceeds 12 percent –and is about 16 percent in Portugal, 17 percent in Cyprus and 27 percent in Spain and Greece. Europeans are so used to these numbers that they no longer find them shocking, which is profoundly disturbing. These are not minor details, blemishing an otherwise impeccable record, but evidence of a dismal policy failure. The euro is a bad idea, which was pointed out two decades ago when the currency was being devised. The currency area is too large and diverse –and given the need for periodic real exchange rate adjustments, the anti-inflation mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB) is too restrictive.
Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις
- Dolls, Μ., Fuest, C., Neumann, D. and Peichl, A., (2014), “Fiscal Integration in the Eurozone: Economic Effects of Two Key Scenarios”, EUROMOD Working Paper 1/14, Ιανουάριος.
- Greene, M., (2014), “The Eurozone’s Imperfect Banking Union”, Open Markets, 20 Φεβρουαρίου.
- Patel, Α., (2014), “Eurozone Crisis: Another Chapter in the Never-Ending Saga of Boom and Bust”, LSE Eurocrisis in the Press, 21 Φεβρουαρίου.