Euro Zone Crisis - The EU in a Currency War for Suvival?

Catalog description

"Let me put it simply...there may be a contradiction between the interests of the financial world and the interests of the political world...We cannot keep constantly explaining to our voters and our citizens why the taxpayer should bear the cost of certain risks and not those people who have earned a lot of money from taking those risks." Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, at the G20 Summit, November 2010. In January 1999, a single monetary system united Germany, a core nation, with 10 other European states. Amidst the optimism of the euro's first days, most observers forecast that Europe would progress toward an ever closer union. Indeed, in the ensuing decade, the European Union became the world's largest trading area, the euro area expanded to include 17 member states, and the Lisbon Treaty enhanced the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union. In 2009, Greece's debt crisis exposed deep rifts within the European Union and developed into a euro zone crisis - arguably the most difficult test Europe has faced in the past 60 years. After two years of a more benign EURO debt situation, the risk of recession, EU sanctions agains Russia, and a possible collision of a newly-elected Greek government with its creditors, the euro crisis returned with a vengeance in 2015. In addition, the pressure mounts for European leaders to find a solution to the refugee crisis which reached a peak in the fall of 2015. In 2016 the Brexit delivered the latest blow to the European Union, and the future of the European project without the UK looks bleak. The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is still fragile, and economic and political developments in 2017 could determine the future of the euro. Does the EU have what it takes to emerge from these crises? Will the European nations find a collective constructive solution that will lead to a fiscal union that implies further…