IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ret/ecocri/rec27_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The euro system and the overall european project: Failure or fully-fledged success?

Author

Listed:
  • Massimo Pivetti

    (University of Rome "La Sapienza)

Abstract

Some critical economists appear to believe that the European monetary union (EMU) has gone somewhat astray, and that the working of the euro area could be made significantly better if only the flawed nature of a few key theoretical underpinnings of the project was duly recognized. Quite to the contrary, it is maintained in this article that EMU has indeed been fully successful from the point of view of its actual objective, which has never been that of increasing the overall welfare of the majority of the population concerned. In the light of actual experience, EMU can be interpreted as a deliberate project to undermine wage earners' bargaining power throughout the Continent. The building of the euro system is shown in the article to have been but the way in which the epoch-making policy shift suffered by advanced capitalism as a whole since the early 1980s was brought about in continental Europe. Differently from the USA and the UK, in continental Europe that shift, with its attack on the material living conditions of wage earners, developed gradually and indirectly through the progressive draining away of national economic sovereignties. It is the removal of the nation state, coupled with the absence of a supranational political power, that the building of the euro system has largely achieved. The preservation and strengthening of this double absence is what the strenuous safeguard of the system is currently aiming at.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Pivetti, 2019. "The euro system and the overall european project: Failure or fully-fledged success?," Revista de Economia Critica, Asociacion de Economia Critica, vol. 27, pages 112-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:ret:ecocri:rec27_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistaeconomiacritica.org/index.php/rec/article/view/216/201
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo Pivetti, 2013. "On the Gloomy European Project: An Introduction," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(1), pages 1-10.
    2. Massimo Pivetti, 1998. "Monetary versus Political Unification in Europe. On Maastricht as an exercise in 'vulgar' political economy," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 5-26.
    3. repec:oup:copoec:v:32:y::i:1:p:73-96 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sergio Cesaratto, 2017. "Alternative interpretations of a stateless currency crisis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(4), pages 977-998.
    5. Sergio Cesaratto & Antonella Stirati, 2010. "Germany and the European and Global Crises," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 56-86.
    6. Gerhard Bosch & Ken Mayhew & Jérôme Gautié, 2010. "Industrial relations, legal regulations, and wage setting," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00464362, HAL.
    7. Pivetti, Massimo, 1996. "Maastricht and the Political Independence of Central Banks: Theory and Facts," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(0), pages 81-104.
    8. Aldo Barba & Giancarlo De Vivo, 2013. "Flawed Currency Areas and Viable Currency Areas: External Imbalances and Public Finance in the Time of the Euro," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(1), pages 73-96.
    9. Wiemer Salverda & Ken Mayhew, 2009. "Capitalist economies and wage inequality," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 126-154, Spring.
    10. repec:oup:copoec:v:32:y::i:1:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Summa, Ricardo de Figueiredo, 2022. "Alternative uses of functional finance: Lerner, MMT and the Sraffiansh," IPE Working Papers 175/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Walter Paternesi Meloni, 2017. "Austerity & Competitiveness in the Eurozone: a misleading linkage," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0223, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    2. Sergio Cesaratto, 2017. "Alternative interpretations of a stateless currency crisis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(4), pages 977-998.
    3. Stefano di Bucchianico, 2019. "A bit of Keynesian debt-to-GDP arithmetic for deficit-capped countries," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 13(1), pages 55-83, June.
    4. Sergio Cesaratto, 2013. "The implications of TARGET2 in the European balance of payments crisis and beyond," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 10(3), pages 359-382.
    5. Summa, Ricardo de Figueiredo, 2022. "Alternative uses of functional finance: Lerner, MMT and the Sraffiansh," IPE Working Papers 175/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    6. Ramon Boixadera Bosch & Ferran Portella Carbó, 2019. "Beyond the euro: Limits to economic policy in the EU," Revista de Economía Crítica, Asociación de Economía Crítica, vol. 27, pages 47-58.
    7. Giuseppe Mastromatteo & Sergio Rossi, 2015. "The economics of deflation in the euro area: a critique of fiscal austerity," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 336-350, July.
    8. Sergio Cesaratto, 2016. "The modern revival of the Classical surplus approach: implications for the analysis of growth and crises," Department of Economics University of Siena 735, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    9. Leone Leonida & Marianna Marra & Sergio Scicchitano & Antonio Giangreco & Marco Biagetti, 2020. "Estimating the Wage Premium to Supervision for Middle Managers in Different Contexts: Evidence from Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1004-1026, December.
    10. Daniel Detzer & Eckhard Hein, 2014. "Finance-dominated capitalism in Germany – deep recession and quick recovery," Working papers wpaper54, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    11. Sergio Cesaratto, 2012. "Controversial and novel features of the Eurozone crisis as a balance of payment crisis," Department of Economics University of Siena 640, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    12. Jeroen Horemans, 2016. "Polarisation of Non-standard Employment in Europe: Exploring a Missing Piece of the Inequality Puzzle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 171-189, January.
    13. Stefano Lucarelli & Gaetano Perone, 2020. "Quando la produttivitˆ limitata dalla bilancia dei pagamenti. Una riflessione sulle relazioni fra centro e periferia nellÕunione monetaria europea a partire dallÕequazione della produttivitˆ di Sylos ," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 73(292), pages 325-353.
    14. Chiara Benassi & Andreas Kornelakis, 2021. "How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(3), pages 715-738, May.
    15. Alberto Bagnai, 2013. "Unhappy families are all alike: Minskyan cycles, Kaldorian growth, and the Eurozone peripheral crises," a/ Working Papers Series 1301, Italian Association for the Study of Economic Asymmetries, Rome (Italy).
    16. Esteban Perez-Caldentey & Matias Vernengo, 2012. "The Euro Imbalances and Financial Deregulation: A Post-Keynesian Interpretation of the European Debt Crisis," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_702, Levy Economics Institute.
    17. Sergio Cesaratto, 2017. "Beyond the traditional monetary circuit: endogenous money, finance and the theory of long-period effective demand," Department of Economics University of Siena 757, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    18. Paternesi Meloni, Walter, 2016. "Austerity and competitiveness in the Eurozone: a misleading linkage," MPRA Paper 75962, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Eckhard Hein, 2013. "The crisis of finance-dominated capitalism in the euro area, deficiencies in the economic policy architecture, and deflationary stagnation policies," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 325-354.
    20. Saraceno, Chiara, 2020. "Quando avere un lavoro non basta a proteggere dalla povertà," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, volume 20, number 228477, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ret:ecocri:rec27_10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Biblioteca-CRAI, Servicio de Publicación Digital (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aecrcea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.