The Future of the Euro

by Matthias Matthijs (Editor), Mark Blyth (Editor)

Overview

In The Future of the Euro, a group of the world's top political economists analyze the fundamental causes of the euro crisis, determine how it can be fixed, and consider what likely futures lie ahead for the currency. The book makes three interrelated arguments emphasizing the primacy of political over economic factors. First, the original plan for the euro focused on monetary union, but omitted a financial and banking union, mutually supporting institutions of fiscal union and economic government, and a legitimate political union. Second, the euro's unfinished design led to economic divergence-quietly altering the existing distribution of economic and political power within Europe prior to the crisis-which in turn determined the EU's crisis response. The book highlights how the euro's four most important member states-Germany, France, Italy and Spain-each changed once they adopted the euro, why the crisis affected them so differently, and how each has since struggled to live with the commitments the euro necessitates. Third, the book examines three possible "euro futures" through the lens of the politics of its reluctant leader Germany; through the lens of the EU's capacity to move forward through crises; and through the geopolitical lens of the international monetary system. Any successful long-term solution to the euro's predicament will need to start with the political foundations of markets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190266448
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/02/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Matthias Matthijs, Assistant Professor of International Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS and author of Ideas and Economic Crises (Routledge) Mark Blyth, Professor of Political Science, Brown University and author of Austerity (Oxford University Press) and Great Transformations (Cambridge University Press)

Table of Contents

List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Introduction: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Embedded Currency Areas Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth Section I: The Euro Problem Chapter 2: Forgotten Embeddedness: History Lessons for the Euro Kathleen R. McNamara Chapter 3: Forgotten Financial Union: How You Can Have a Euro Crisis without a Euro Erik Jones Chapter 4: Elusive Economic Government and Forgotten Fiscal Union Nicolas Jabko Chapter 5: Forgotten Democratic Legitimacy: 'Governing by the Rules' and 'Ruling by the Numbers' Vivien A. Schmidt Section II: The Euro Experience Chapter 6: Germany's Euro Experience and the Long Shadow of Reunification Abraham Newman Chapter 7: Europe's Middle Child: France's Statist Liberalism and the Conflicted Politics of the Euro Mark I. Vail Chapter 8: The Troubled South: The Euro Experience in Italy and Spain Jonathan Hopkin Section III: The Euro Future Chapter 9: Europe's New German Problem: The Timing of Politics and the Politics of Timing Wade Jacoby Chapter 10: European Integration Past, Present, and Future: Moving Forward through Crisis? Craig Parsons and Matthias Matthijs Chapter 11: The Future of the Euro in a Global Monetary Context Eric Helleiner Chapter 12: Conclusion: The Future of the Euro: Possible Futures, Risks, and Uncertainties Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"[A] coherent collection of essays by a group of political economists... the contributions also shatter some complacent assumptions about the EU."

—Times Literary Supplement

"This is a very timely book. The authors of this collection of essays are world class researchers. They provide us with an exhaustive analysis of the necessary political steps to be undertaken to make the Eurozone sustainable in the long run. There is still a long way to go. In this exciting book we learn what this road will look like." — Paul De Grauwe, John Paulson Chair in European Political Economy, London School of Economics

"A vital contribution-if you want to understand the challenges at the heart of Europe's continuing crisis, put yourself in the hands of this dream-team of experts. Matthijs and Blyth have crafted a volume that is both timely and essential." — Jonathan David Kirshner, Stephen and Barbara Friedman Professor of International Political Economy, Cornell University

"The book provides the theoretical background a careful insight into the earlier forms of a monetary union in history with short and concise representations."

— Cezmi Dispinar

From the Publisher