Home > Work > The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe
1 " Most importantly, it became clear that the name “free trade agreement” was itself a matter of deceptive advertising: it was really a managed trade agreement, managed especially for special corporate interests, particularly in the United States. "
― Joseph E. Stiglitz , The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe
2 " the newly elected government was told in effect that they had no choice: accept the conditions or your banking system will be destroyed, your economy will be devastated, and you will have to leave the euro. What does it mean to be a democracy, where the citizens seemingly have no say over the issues about which they care the most, or the way their economy is run? "
3 " As those, for instance, in Ireland celebrate the return to growth (in 2015 it was Europe’s fastest growing economy),1 they need to remember: every (or almost every) economy recovers from a downturn. "
4 " While GDP is the standard measure of economic performance,2 there are other indicators, and in virtually every one, the eurozone’s overall performance is dismal, and that of the crisis countries, disastrous: unemployment is very high; youth unemployment is very, very high; and output per capita is lower than before the crisis for the eurozone as a whole, much lower for some of the crisis countries. "
5 " On every criterion by which performance is usually measured, the eurozone has been failing. Its performance has been poor relative to the United States, from which the crisis originated, and relative to non-eurozone Europe. Even Germany could not escape. "
6 " Europe’s reaction to the UK’s referendum was dominated by the same harsh response that greeted Greece’s June 2015 ballot-box rejection of its bailout package. Herman Van Rompuy, former European Council1 president, expressed a widespread feeling when he said that Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum “was the worst policy decision in decades.” In so saying, he revealed a deep antipathy toward democratic accountability. "
7 " Jean-Claude Juncker, the proud architect of Luxembourg’s massive corporate tax-avoidance schemes and now the head of the European Commission, has taken a hard line—perhaps understandably, given that he may go down in history as the person on whose watch the dissolution of the EU began. "
8 " But Dutch and other European milk producers would like to increase sales by having their milk, transported over long distances, appear to be as fresh as the local product. In 2014 the Troika forced Greece to drop the label “fresh” on its truly fresh milk and extend allowable shelf life. "
9 " The eurozone was flawed at birth. "
10 " The euro was born with great hopes. Reality has proven otherwise. "
