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Visiting professor Ashoka Mody is the author of EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts, which unpacks the history and political motivations behind the European Union’s decision to employ a common currency, the euro. In a conversation with PAWcast’s Carrie Compton, Mody discusses the currency’s inherent flaws and its uncertain future — a topic that’s made headlines in recent days.
Ashoka Mody is a professor of international economic policy at Princeton University and formerly worked at the IMF and the World Bank. He joins the show today to discuss his new book, *EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts*. David and Ashoka also delve deep into the history of the Euro, as they discuss its complicated political origins and why its creation may have been a mistake. Ashoka’s Twitter: @AshokaMody Ashoka’s Princeton profile: https://scholar.princeton.edu/amody/home Related Links: *EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts* by Ashoka Mody https://global.oup.com/academic/product/eurotragedy-9780199351381?cc=us&lang=en& *EMU and International Conflict* by Martin Feldstein https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/1997-11-01/emu-and-international-conflict David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent’s ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany’s commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro’s introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent’s ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany’s commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro’s introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent’s ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany’s commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro’s introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent’s ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany’s commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro’s introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent’s ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany’s commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro’s introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent's ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany's commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro's introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since.
For decades the implementation of a single European currency was seen by its advocates as a vital step in the post-World War II movement toward greater European integration. As Ashoka Mody details in Eurotragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts (Oxford University Press, 2018), however, the euro that emerged was built on a dangerously flawed set of assumptions, ones which have made the euro a key factor in the continent's ongoing economic problems. First proposed by French leaders in the 1960s, the idea of a single European currency was viewed by them as a way of shoring up their presence in the global economy. Though German politicians and bankers were initially resistant to implementing such a currency, this changed during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. As he grappled with the resistance to German reunification at the end of the Cold War, Kohl embraced the single currency as a symbol of Germany's commitment to European cooperation and over the course of the 1990s he shepherded its creation over the objections of economists and growing popular discontent with the idea. These concerns proved prescient in the years following the euro's introduction in 1999, as the single currency deprived participating nations of the ability to employ devaluation as a national response to global competition, creating added economic issues that have sharpened political tensions throughout the continent ever since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices