Why is the euro proving such an economic failure?
Because, as the former Bank of England Governor Eddie George put it, “monetary union is fundamentally a political project rather than an economic issue.”.* Its main objective, freely admitted by its key architects, is a political one – the further integration of the EU into a federal state. * Willem Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank, said that “The introduction of the euro is neither an isolated nor a purely economic event. It is another, yet very important, step in the process of European integration. … The creation of the euro is not the end of that process either,” adding that “economists all too often assess the costs and benefits of European integration in purely economic terms”. (sic) * Germany Chancellor Schröder similarly recognizes that the euro is “an important step on the road to European integration”. * In fact, the long-term prospects for a sustainable single currency are not promising. As Lord Owen noted in a major article for the Economist: * “For cont
