European monetary union: so troubled, so awkward and ill-conceived, et cetera.
And so… speedy?
We spent a bit of time last year pondering precedents and possible scenarios for monetary union break-ups, of which there are few with much appeal. But Deutsche Bank strategist Stuart Parkinson makes the interesting argument that it took about 147 years for the US to become a monetary union. Read more
Eurozone hindsight, ain’t it fun?
Peter Oborne, the Telegraph’s chief political commentator, certainly thinks so. In a Thursday column Oborne makes the point that the UK’s own recession would have been much worse if the country had been locked into the monetary union — and unable to lower its interest rates or devalue its currency — as rapidly as it did. Read more
Three regions, three problems.
According to strategists at Barclays Wealth on Monday, the global economy is facing three big risks in three big regions: Read more
ING recently spelt out what a eurozone break-up would mean for the global economy — seemingly much to the delight of commentators like the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
From the July 7 edition of the British paper: Read more
Some analysts and politicians have suggested Greece should leave the eurozone, but such a move would neither be easy, nor even a solution to either the Republic’s or the currency union’s woes. From a strictly legal standpoint, the challenges are formidable, not least because there is no precedent for either withdrawal or expulsion from European Monetary Union. FT Alphaville has more. Read more
Could Greece be forced out of the euro zone – or for that matter the EU – as a result of its fiscal delinquency?
As we reported last week, it’s a matter recently taken up in an EU paper entitled “Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU: Some reflections” by Phoebus Athanassiou and published in December 2009. Read more
