Euro

Euro Series Banknotes.

The euro (sign: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of the eurozone, which consists of 18 of the 27 member states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Quotes

• With the euro, that form of pressure has gone.
  • Perry Anderson, "Depicting Europe", London Review of Books (20 September 2007)

• The most likely scenario is that EMU (Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union) will occur but will neither end Europe’s currency troubles nor solve its prosperity problems.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch, "Euro fantasies", Foreign Affairs, vol. 75, n. 5, p. 113, September/October 1996.

• Once Italy is in, with an appreciated currency, the country will soon be back on the ropes, just as in 1992, when the currency came under attack.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch, "Euro fantasies", Foreign Affairs, vol. 75, n. 5, p. 115, September/October 1996.

• The most serious criticism of EMU is that by abandoning exchange rate adjustments it transfers to the labor market the task of adjusting for competitiveness and relative prices... losses in output and employment (and pressure on the European central bank to inflate) will predominate.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch, "Euro fantasies", Foreign Affairs, vol. 75, n. 5, p. 120, September/October 1996.

• Italians dream that the ECB (European Central Bank) will make their life easier than the Bundesbank does now... The new central bank is certain to establish itself at the outset as a direct continuation of the German central bank.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch, "Euro fantasies", Foreign Affairs, vol. 75, n. 5, p. 121, September/October 1996.

• If there was ever a bad idea, EMU it is.
  • Rudiger Dornbusch, "Euro fantasies", Foreign Affairs, vol. 75, n. 5, p. 124, September/October 1996.

• Instead of increasing intra-European harmony and global peace, the shift to EMU and the political integration that would follow it would be more likely to lead to increased conflicts within Europe.
  • Martin Feldstein, "EMU and international conflict", Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, n. 6, p. 61, November/December 1997

• Although 50 years of European peace since the end of World War II may augur well for the future, it must be remembered that there were also more than 50 year of peace between the Congress of Vienna and the Franco-Prussian War. Moreover, contrary to the hopes and assumptions of Jean Monnet and other advocates of European integration, the devastating American Civil War shows that a formal political union is no guarantee against an intra-European war.
  • Martin Feldstein, "EMU and international conflict", Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, n. 6, p. 62, November/December 1997

• What is clear is that a French aspiration for equality and a German expectation of hegemony are not consistent.
  • Martin Feldstein, "EMU and international conflict", Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, n. 6, p. 69, November/December 1997

• A critical feature of the EU(European Union) in general and EMU in particular is that there is no legitimate way for a member to withdraw... The American experience with the secession of the South may contain some lessons about the danger of a treaty or constitution that has no exits.
  • Martin Feldstein, "EMU and international conflict", Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, n. 6, p. 72, November/December 1997

• The euro is bad for Europe. The euro is bad for the Netherlands, it’s especially bad because it is a stimulus for politicians to kill the Welfare State. I look forward to a European economy using multiple currencies. In the end that will be much better: it will make us more resistant to shocks and makes us less vulnerable to what is happening now.
  • Arjo Klamer, cited in: Hans von der Brelie, "The Dutch face austerity," at euronews.com, 2012/05/25

• What has happened, it turns out, is that by going on the euro, Spain and Italy in effect reduced themselves to the status of Third World countries that have to borrow in someone else’s currency, with all the loss of flexibility that implies.
  • Paul Krugman, "Paul Krugman Does Modern Money Theory: Today’s Links"

• EMU wasn't designed to make everyone happy. It was designed to keep Germany happy - to provide the kind of stern anti-inflationary discipline that everyone knew Germany had always wanted and would always want in future.
  • Paul Krugman, "The euro: beware of what you wish for", Fortune (1998)

• The clear and present danger is, instead, that Europe will turn Japanese: that it will slip inexorably into deflation, that by the time the central bankers finally decide to loosen up it will be too late.
  • Paul Krugman, "The euro: beware of what you wish for", Fortune (1998)

• The idea that the euro has "failed" is dangerously naive. The euro is doing exactly what its progenitor – and the wealthy 1%-ers who adopted it – predicted and planned for it to do.
  • Greg Palast, "Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro", The Guardian, 26 June 2012
  • "The Euro is a Big Success - No Kidding", gregpalast.com

• Moving to a full monetary union in Europe is like putting the cart before the horse. A major shock would result in unbearable pressure within the Union because of limited labour mobility, inadequate fiscal redistribution, and a ECB(European Central Bank) that will probably want to keep monetary conditions tight in order to make the euro as strong as the dollar. This is surely the prescription for major future problems.
  • Dominick Salvatore, "The common unresolved problems within EMS and the EMU", American Economic Review, vol. 87, n. 2, pp. 224-226

See also

• Currency
• Money