Manchester University Press
4 Political underpinnings: disunited Europe
Abstract
Franco-German relations are the important political underpinning for the stability of the international financial system to which observers must pay attention. A Franco-German compromise had laid an early foundation for what was to become the European Union. This chapter shows why so little attention was given in Brussels, Paris and Bonn in the mid-1990s to the uncertainties that surrounded Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the dangers that lay in its path. Even assuming that EMU, like the Exchange Rate Mechanism, encounters no market turmoil in the dangerous transition period to 2003, it could very well be that German monetary hegemony in the European Union will doom European economies to prolonged slow growth, high unemployment and low competitiveness. European official and much conventional opinion has always tended to exaggerate the euro's chances of rivalling the dollar.
Abstract
Franco-German relations are the important political underpinning for the stability of the international financial system to which observers must pay attention. A Franco-German compromise had laid an early foundation for what was to become the European Union. This chapter shows why so little attention was given in Brussels, Paris and Bonn in the mid-1990s to the uncertainties that surrounded Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the dangers that lay in its path. Even assuming that EMU, like the Exchange Rate Mechanism, encounters no market turmoil in the dangerous transition period to 2003, it could very well be that German monetary hegemony in the European Union will doom European economies to prolonged slow growth, high unemployment and low competitiveness. European official and much conventional opinion has always tended to exaggerate the euro's chances of rivalling the dollar.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Introduction to the new edition of Mad money vii
- Acknowledgements xvii
- List of abbreviations xviii
- 1 The casino image gone mad 1
- 2 Innovations 22
- 3 Political underpinnings: the US–Japan axis 43
- 4 Political underpinnings: disunited Europe 60
- 5 Wall Street and other casinos 78
- 6 The debtors 97
- 7 Finance and crime 123
- 8 Managing mad money – national systems 139
- 9 Our international guardians 158
- 10 So what? 179
- Bibliography 192
- Index 203
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Introduction to the new edition of Mad money vii
- Acknowledgements xvii
- List of abbreviations xviii
- 1 The casino image gone mad 1
- 2 Innovations 22
- 3 Political underpinnings: the US–Japan axis 43
- 4 Political underpinnings: disunited Europe 60
- 5 Wall Street and other casinos 78
- 6 The debtors 97
- 7 Finance and crime 123
- 8 Managing mad money – national systems 139
- 9 Our international guardians 158
- 10 So what? 179
- Bibliography 192
- Index 203
