Crisis in the Eurozone

There is much evidence to suggest that the credit crunch has had disastrous effects on the eurozone. This book explores the background of the eurozone crisis, outlining a number of potential solutions. It attempts to discover if the problems could have been anticipated, and examines how well have the fiscal EMU rules been adhered to and how appropriate they are. The authors discuss how the credit crunch triggered problems with sovereign debt in the eurozone and argue that the failure of the eurozone to meet any convergence criteria was an accident waiting to happen. In particular, they look at the issues of spill-over and free-rider effects, together with the implementation of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) fiscal rules. Furthermore, they outline a series of potential remedies, consisting of a critical evaluation of solutions that the European Union (EU) has already instigated (i.e. moral persuasion, financial relief measures and debt default), together with a series of alternative propositions (i.e. fiscal federalism and a European Clearing Union) and even the collapse of the euro and options for national economic self-governance. This study, with its comprehensive analysis of the eurozone crisis, is essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of monetary economics, European economics, political science and international relations.