The Eurozone Crisis and the Future of Europe

"As the conventional wisdom goes, the euro crisis resulted from the combination of many factors: the subprime/global financial crisis, real estate bubbles, excessive government deficits, the debts of some countries of the eurozone and so on. This book goes beyond these standard rationales. Instead, it highlights how the loss of competitiveness in Southern countries led to a widely neglected but highly influential phenomenon, namely, a sharp increase in external debt. By analyzing all aspects of the euro crisis, this work raises fundamental questions about the relevance and sustainability of the euro for a group of countries whose competitiveness and unit labour costs vary so widely. This book makes a valuable contribution by offering a unique perspective on efforts to understand the euro crisis." - Serge Rey, University of PAU

"This volume examines the eurozone crisis in depth, from all points of view, and in a scholarly manner (but intelligible also by the layman). A gem is the chapter by the late Jerome Stein on the diversity of debt crises in Europe, based on his NATREX model. I highly recommend this book not only to professionals, but also to the general public of interested persons." - Giancarlo Gandolfo, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, Italy