Preview

Euro Zone

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2745 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Euro Zone
Eurozone is called the Euro area, started in 1998 and consist of 17 countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. The Eurozone have adopted the common currency call the Euro. The monetary policy of the Eurozone is control by the European Central Bank. When I think about Eurozone, I often think of a powerful union consist of many rich countries; and there is not likely chance of getting into financial crises. In 2007, there was an on going financial crisis that happened called the European Sovereign debt crises. The crisis made some countries in the Eurozone difficult or impossible to repay or refinance their government debt. The crisis have affected heavily on Eurozone and also made them face the risk of getting separate. In this paper, we will looking at the cause of the crisis and also find out some possible solution for the problem.

In the beginning, we will look at the Eurozone currency. Is Eurozone an optimal currency area? In 1979, the European Monetary Systems was launched when European Community fixed their currencies exchange rates around to European Currency Unit. After that time, there are many debates about whether or not the Eurozone is an optimal currency area. Optimal currency area is “the geographic area in which a single currency would create the greatest economic benefit”. A certain area has to qualify some criteria to be able to identify as optimal currency area. Those criteria are: labor mobility, price and wage flexibility, financial market integration, economic openness and similarity in inflation rates. There are several study have been made to examine the Eurozone currency. Eurozone is not an optimal currency area since it is not fulfill all of the criteria. Even though it may have many characteristics of an optimal currency area.

Robert Mundell pointed out that “ an essential ingredient of a currency area

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Euro Currency Markets, specifically most of the countries in the European Union (EU), have adopted the euro, a new currency that was introduced in Europe on January 1, 1999, and introduced as physical coins and banknotes in 2002. The name, Eurozone, has been coined as those countries who have adopted the euro. The ECB, which is located in Frankfort, Germany, is the responsible financial institution to institute the monetary policy within the Eurozone. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB), which is comprised of the central banks of the member countries, is involved in the printing, minting, and distribution of the coins and banknotes to all participants and in the management the Eurozone payment system operations.…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay 4

    • 1561 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Milton Friendman talks about the concerns of the EMU – a monetary union with one currency, the Euro, managed by a sole central bank, launching within the euro area in 1992 resulting in a fixed exchange rate between the members. The statement stresses that by adopting a single currency; the differences in the member countries will result in asymmetric shocks and further problems. This is associated with the theory of optimum currency areas which implies that countries wishing to join the fixed exchange rate area successfully is linked to high economic integration. This statement questions the extent of Eurozone being an OCA.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the financial crisis, some members of the European Union viewed this crisis as an American phenomenon (Jackson 2009). But this view that people had, has changed as the EU has declined at a very fast pace. Matters went worse when the global trade started to decline sharply when it started eroding prospects for European exports giving safety valve for local industries that are reducing output (Gojinetchi 2012). Moreover the rise in unemployment and having a lot of concerns over the growing financial turmoil, are making the political stakes to increase for the EU government and for the leaders (Nanto 2009). The more the economic crisis persist the more will pressure mount on the governments…

    • 918 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Currently, the whole euro zone countries still are traped in Euro Crisis. this situation tells us that it is necessary and urgent to improve euro emergency mechanism to cope with this crisis. Some approaches are introduced and, among them ,the EMF and Eurobonds attract most attentions. Both the EMF and Eurobonds are proposed idea which need to be discussed. Knowing their advantages and drawbacks is quite important before making decisions. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the main reason of low effectiveness of the euro mechanism and critically evaluate these two solutions and discuss the prospects for the future.…

    • 1668 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    European Union

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The European Union is an economic union consisting of 27 member states. To make a free market and remove trade barriers between member states are the ultimate aim of European Union (Hill p289). Among these ,17 nations are members of the ‘Eurozone’, distributing a currency with the purpose of further assimilating economic systems and plummeting trade obstacles caused by international currency conversion . As a member in Eurozone ,their fundamental goal is to maintain harmony because they have to depend on each other and their economy are interrelated.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Minsky model

    • 3797 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Since the end of the Great Depression “…financial failure has been more extensive and pervasive” in the 30-year period 1980 to 2010 than at any other time leading up to the present day (p. 7). Four financial crises occurred in this 30-year period. The closest in time of the four financial crises to the present period is the recent liquidity crisis, the so-called Great Recession of 2007 – 2009, beginning in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, Ireland and Iceland. Eventually all of the countries of the Eurozone succumbed to the disequilibria of the Great Recession with the Eurozone’s suffering further intensifying because of the emergence of the so-called Sovereign Debt Crisis, a sub-crisis morphing out of the Great Recession in 2010 and 2011, involving Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus. The Sovereign Debt Crisis is still ongoing having recently extended itself into calendar year 2013.…

    • 3797 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Notes

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In life many people, groups, organizations make pacts with each other. When a person marries, a pact is formed or established between the two, man and woman. Most of the pacts are not fulfilled due to the group, individual or organizations not able to fully commit to living out the pact requirements. According to Civitas EU Facts, seventeen EU members who used the Euro funds to support their economy agreed to keep the amount of funds spending and borrow in control to assist with economic stability and growth of their respective country. The agreement was called the Euro Stability and Growth Pact. Many Eurozone members were not able to keep the rules. As a result in 2005, the rules were changed to allow flexibility among the countries and later 2011 the Pact was reformed to tighten the rules.…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Europe

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout time Europeans and Native Americans influenced each other’s cultures. However, the lifestyle of the Native Americans was significantly changed with the influence of the Europeans, especially European traders and settlers. On the other hand, the Europeans influence the culture of the Native American by bringing diseases, constant fighting because the overtaking of lands, guns, steel hatchets, pots, and kettles of brass. Europeans also taught Native Americans the way to produce clothes and make die for the yarn.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    An introduction of the new common currency in the Europe was announced on the first day of January 1999. At the first time, there were eleven countries, which decided to join the European Union (EU) and replace their own currency with a new one, the Euro. The Euro has been adopted as a official currency of the country members including Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In order to be accepted to join the Euro, these countries had to agree with the agreement about the price stability, long-term interest rate, government budget deficits, total government debt, exchange rate stability, and central bank independence, which will discuss more specific in this essay.…

    • 2063 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The countries that currently compose the Eurozone are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. In order to join the Eurozone, European Union countries had to qualify by meeting the terms of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty in terms of budget deficits, inflation, interest rates and other monetary requirements. The European Union countries that declined to join the Eurozone are: the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark. Monetary policy of the Eurozone is the responsibility of the European Central Bank which is governed by a president and a board of the heads of national central banks. The Eurozone is largest trading area in the world and one point in time challenged the U.S. Dollar for global supremacy, but large deficits and sovereign debt by many of the countries exposed the Eurozone’s vulnerability. Furthermore, the Eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis demonstrated the interdependence of the European Union and also the lack of leadership in order to respond to the problem with a strong fiscal and monetary policy. Germany and France considered the most stable economies called on the weaker countries to embrace strict austerity measures which caused much popular unrest bringing down both the government in Italy and…

    • 3887 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    P5 BTEC Level 3 unit 38

    • 1398 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A major fault in the Eurozone is that all countries will have to have the same interest rates, which is not good because they all have different very different economies. A prime example is that countries like, Germany and France have lot stronger economies than the PIIGS, which stands for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The current EU base rate is 0.250%, which wills suite countries like the PIIGS, but it will also halt the progress of France and Germany. However the UK can change their base rate, which is controlled by the Bank OF England, the current base rate in the…

    • 1398 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Euro Crisis 2009

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Furthermore, in Euro Crisis 2009, because of adverse selection, poorer countries become the major member of single currency zone such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and so on. The larger government debt of those poorer countries makes the sovereign debt crisis becomes more intense and the political balance of euro zone fiscal union is more toward to them. Therefore, richer countries in Euro-Zone have to transfer their financial resource to those poorer countries to cover the sovereign debt. With the continuous rising of sovereign debt in Euro zone, Euro Crisis becomes a global financial crisis.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Eurozone Crisis

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Eurozone is a combined group of countries using the euro as their only currency. It was created in 1999 and currently consists of 17 countries – not all part of the European Union (Investor Words). Within the Eurozone, the countries follow a monetary policy and controlled by the European Central Bank (in other words, the ECB controlled the supply of the euro within the 17 countries). In an attempt to control government debt levels and deficit spending the Maastricht Treaty was created. As years passed, some countries government deficit began to rise and increased debt levels. By 2010, Greece (3% of the Eurozone) had public debt around 100% of their GDP. In order to lower their debt levels, the Greek government had increased their taxes and their borrowing levels. Solutions for fixing this issue consisted of stronger countries paying off the Greek debt – however not everyone agreed to such methods. Eventually, the value of the euro went down in the exchange markets and other Eurozone countries such as: Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain faced the same problem as Greece. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) donated money to help reduce the amount of debt – however not enough (Krugman, Obstfeld, Melitz, 2011). Since the Eurozone is controlled by monetary rules and does not consist of fiscal union (government collection of tax’s), it has made it harder for countries to recuperate from the crisis. It has been said that this Eurozone crisis is like a currency crisis as they try to preserve the euro from depreciating and losing value. Although, this is an ongoing crisis, there are certain steps the Eurozone can take in order to release the countries from their ongoing debt levels and hopefully reverse the effects on the euro.…

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stability and Growth Pact

    • 2283 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Since the beginning of monetary integration ideologies throughout European member states, there have been numerous movements which have contributed to the state of Economic Monetary Union the EU finds itself in today: with a single currency, a single market and competing with the American Dollar. One of the contributing movements which helped build towards greater monetary integration, was the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Growing from the Maastricht Treaty (1992), it was introduced mainly to insure that member states maintained budgetary discipline after the introduction of the single currency. It built upon criteria that was agreed in the Maastricht Treaty, and was agreed and formed in the Amsterdam Council meeting (1997). This essay will firstly address some of the former monetary integration ideologies, and give a brief history of the movements which lead to Economic Monetary Union (EMU) within member states. Then it will give a short indication and description of how the Stability and Growth Pact works. It will also discuss why it was introduced, and some of the reasons for its so called “failure”.…

    • 2283 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Euro Zone Crisis

    • 3550 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In 2007, EU economies, on the surface, seemed to be doing relatively well – with positive economic growth and low INFLATION. Public debt was often high, but (apart from Greece) it appeared to be manageable assuming a positive trend in economic growth.…

    • 3550 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays