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

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  • 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 Economía Crítica, Asociación de Economía Crítica, vol. 27, pages 112-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:ret:ecocri:rec27_10
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo Pivetti, 2013. "On the Gloomy European Project: An Introduction," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, 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.
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    4. Sergio Cesaratto, 2017. "Alternative interpretations of a stateless currency crisis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, 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.
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    7. Pivetti, Massimo, 1996. "Maastricht and the Political Independence of Central Banks: Theory and Facts," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, 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, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 73-96.
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    10. repec:oup:copoec:v:32:y::i:1:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
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