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Myths, Mix-ups, and Mishandlings: Understanding the Eurozone Crisis

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  • Servaas Storm
  • C.W.M. Naastepad

Abstract

The Eurozone crisis has been wrongly interpreted as either a crisis of fiscal profligacy or of deteriorating unit-labor cost competitiveness (caused by rigid labor markets), or a combination of both. Based on these diagnoses, crisis countries have been treated with the bitter medicines of fiscal austerity, wage reductions, and labor market deregulation—all in the expectation that these would restore cost competitiveness and revive growth (through exports), while at the same time allowing for fiscal consolidation and private debt deleveraging. The medicines did not work and almost killed the patients. The problem lies with the diagnoses: the real cause of the crisis resides in unsustainable private sector debt leverage, which was aided and abetted by the liberalization of European financial markets and a “global banking glut.”

Suggested Citation

  • Servaas Storm & C.W.M. Naastepad, 2016. "Myths, Mix-ups, and Mishandlings: Understanding the Eurozone Crisis," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 46-71, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:ijpoec:v:45:y:2016:i:1:p:46-71
    DOI: 10.1080/08911916.2016.1159084
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    2. Claudius Gräbner & Philipp Heimberger & Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz, 2020. "Structural change in times of increasing openness: assessing path dependency in European economic integration," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1467-1495, November.
    3. Karsten Kohler, 2024. "Capital Flows and the Eurozone's North-South Divide," Politics & Society, , vol. 52(2), pages 304-330, June.
    4. Claudius Gräbner & Philipp Heimberger & Jakob Kapeller, 2020. "Pandemic pushes polarisation: the Corona crisis and macroeconomic divergence in the Eurozone," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(3), pages 425-438, September.
    5. Philipp Heimberger & Jakob Kapeller, 2017. "The performativity of potential output: pro-cyclicality and path dependency in coordinating European fiscal policies," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 904-928, September.
    6. Philipp Heimberger, 2017. "Österreichs Staatsausgabenstrukturen im europäischen Vergleich," wiiw Research Reports in German language 8, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    7. Walter Paternesi Meloni, 2021. "The price vs. non-price competitiveness conundrum: a post-Keynesian comparative political economy analysis," Working Papers PKWP2109, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    8. Juneja, Januj, 2017. "How Germany benefits the most from its Eurozone membership," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1074-1088.
    9. Karsten Kohler & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2022. "Growing differently? Financial cycles, austerity, and competitiveness in growth models since the Global Financial Crisis," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 1314-1341, July.
    10. Engelbert Stockhammer & Andre Novas Otero, 2023. "A tale of housing cycles and fiscal policy, not competitiveness. Growth drivers in Southern Europe," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 483-505, May.
    11. John Marangos, 2023. "The Post-Keynesian Perspective and Policy Recommendations for the Greek Financial Crisis," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 423-447, September.
    12. Alex Izurieta & Pierre Kohler & Juan Pizarro, 2018. "Financialization, Trade, and Investment Agreements: Through the Looking Glass or Through the Realities of Income Distribution and Government Policy?," GDAE Working Papers 18-02, GDAE, Tufts University.
    13. Luis Cárdenas & Paloma Villanueva & Ignacio Álvarez & Jorge Uxó, 2018. "Peripheral Europe beyond the Troika. Assessing the 'success' of structural reforms in driving the Spanish recovery," FMM Working Paper 40-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    14. Villanueva, Paloma & Cárdenas, Luis & Uxó, Jorge & Álvarez, Ignacio, 2020. "The role of internal devaluation in correcting external deficits: The case of Spain," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 282-296.

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