Eurotragedy : a drama in nine acts / Ashoka Mody.

By:

Mody, Ashoka [aut]

Material type: Text

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780199351381
0199351384

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

337.14209 23/swe

LOC classification:

HC240 .M694 2018

Other classification:

Qaea-ae

Contents:

Introduction: Europe Ends up Some Place Else -- 1. Three Leaps in the Dark, 1950-1982 -- 2. Kohl's Euro, 1982-1998 -- 3. Schröder Asserts the German National Interest, 1999-2003 -- 4. Irrational Exuberance, 2004-2007 -- 5. After the Bust, the Denial, 2007-2009 -- 6. Delays and Half Measures: Greece and Ireland in 2010 -- 7. Policy Wounds Leave Scar Tissue, 2011-2013 -- 8. The ECB Hesitates, the Italian Fault Line Deepens, 2014-2017 -- 9. The Final Act: a Declining and Divided Europe -- Scenarios: The Future Ain't What it Used to Be -- Epilogue

Summary: The promise of the European pursuit of ever closer union created tremendous optimism that conflict was the past and harmony would be the future. The enthusiasm for economic integration and monetary union, through the Euro, enhanced the confidence that differences among countries could be overcome. In this dynamic and incisive overview of the European project from its beginnings, Ashoka Mody convincingly demonstrates that the tensions and flaws of the European project were both baked-in and foreseen from the beginning. He focuses on personalities whose ambitious and relentless push for integration led them to choose facts and analysis consistent with their visions and to dismiss warnings of turbulence. They thus laid the seeds for disappointment. Mody examines key moments when contradictions were papered-over, compromising the integrity of integration. He shows how political and economic leaders believed the stories they told themselves about the inevitability of a united Europe as a foundation of peace, prosperity, and democratic ideals, even in the face of warnings from the earliest stages that while the political pillars seemed strong, the economic foundations were weak. Mody compellingly shows how monetary union impaired European integration rather than enhanced it. European countries have always had vastly different economic conditions, and the common currency increased divergences rather than smoothing them, as many analysts warned at the time. The economic, financial, and political pathologies of the euro were there from the beginning, even if the global economic boom hid them. With political and economic elites benefitting, they could ignore the growing discontent of those who suffered and the antipathy to the European project in national heartlands. When crisis inevitably hit, leaders denied, delayed, and took half-measures that only furtheralienated people. If once the inability to deliver on the economic promise caused the political handicaps to worsen,Summary: now the political splintering is making it harder to mount an effective response."

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 4 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Bok	Västerås huvudbibliotek .	Västerås huvudbibliotek	Fackavdelningen	Qae	Available		80062478608

Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages 537-615) and index.

The promise of the European pursuit of ever closer union created tremendous optimism that conflict was the past and harmony would be the future. The enthusiasm for economic integration and monetary union, through the Euro, enhanced the confidence that differences among countries could be overcome. In this dynamic and incisive overview of the European project from its beginnings, Ashoka Mody convincingly demonstrates that the tensions and flaws of the European project were both baked-in and foreseen from the beginning. He focuses on personalities whose ambitious and relentless push for integration led them to choose facts and analysis consistent with their visions and to dismiss warnings of turbulence. They thus laid the seeds for disappointment. Mody examines key moments when contradictions were papered-over, compromising the integrity of integration. He shows how political and economic leaders believed the stories they told themselves about the inevitability of a united Europe as a foundation of peace, prosperity, and democratic ideals, even in the face of warnings from the earliest stages that while the political pillars seemed strong, the economic foundations were weak. Mody compellingly shows how monetary union impaired European integration rather than enhanced it. European countries have always had vastly different economic conditions, and the common currency increased divergences rather than smoothing them, as many analysts warned at the time. The economic, financial, and political pathologies of the euro were there from the beginning, even if the global economic boom hid them. With political and economic elites benefitting, they could ignore the growing discontent of those who suffered and the antipathy to the European project in national heartlands. When crisis inevitably hit, leaders denied, delayed, and took half-measures that only furtheralienated people. If once the inability to deliver on the economic promise caused the political handicaps to worsen,

now the political splintering is making it harder to mount an effective response."