Friday, October 16, 2015
Lars Syll — Why the euro divides Europe
Keeper quote from Wolfgang Streeck.
Why does the euro divide Europe? In a word, neoliberalism. The euro was designed to end social democracy and impose neoliberalism undemocratically since it could not be achieved through democratic means.
See Greg Palast, Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro (The Guardian, 26 June 2012). It was not just Mundell, of course, but a whole cohort that still remains in charge of the currency.
Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Why the euro divides EuropeLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
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2 comments:
Typical leftie rant (in which repeating the word “neo-liberal” like a demented parrot is de rigeur). The ACTUAL reason the Euro’s problems is first technical: given lack of competitiveness in a given country, the usual remedy, namely devaluation is ruled out, so the country has to go for internal devaluation, which is a slow and painful process.
Second, according to Roger Bootle’s book “The Trouble with the Euro”, the politicians (not wicked capitalists) who originally promoted the EU and EZ, knew perfectly well it would result in economic chaos. But they accepted that because they thought that would hasten their ultimate objective, namely POLITICAL UNION.
To repeat, the whole thing was dreamed up by politicians, not wicked neoliberal capitalist employers.
There is much truth in what you say, Ralph, or the euro could never have gotten off the ground. It was based in large measure on excessive political idealism.
At the same time, underneath the idealism is there is often a good measure of realism and that boils down to whose got the power and the wealth. The principe, "follow the money," holds pretty generally in societies with monetary economies. In non-monetary societies, it's just power.
The way I view it sociologically and politically is that monetary societies are means of exerting power using legal ownership (wealth) rather than violence (physical domination, conquest) to gain power and seize wealth. But when push come to shove, violence is also the bottom line in societies with monetary economies. And all modern societies with monetary economies as based on primitive accumulation through violence.
One needs only look at Greece as "example." As the whole global neoliberal project is based on the military superiority of the West, which now being challenged. It will be "interesting" to see how that works out.
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