The End of the Euro: The Uneasy Future of the European Union (Paperback)

This is an up-to-the-minute analysis of the fate of the euro - and with it, the future of the European Union - by acclaimed Belgium-based economic journalist Johan Van Overtveldt, author of "Bernanke's Test" and "The Chicago School". "The End of the Euro" begins with an overview of the birth of the euro itself. Understanding this history is essential to understand the anomalies built into the project from the beginning. These anomalies form the subject of chapter two, along with how they led to the situation that turned Greece, Portugal, and Spain into euro-destroying economic disaster areas. Chapter three shows how this was not an unforeseeable situation, as Europe's history is filled with earlier failed attempts to build monetary unions. Chapter four is focused on Germany, by far the most important country within EMU, and why the chances of Germany leaving the union are much higher than is generally assumed. The book concludes with an analysis of what lies in wait for the remains of the monetary union - and for a deeply divided and troubled continent in general. Either the EMU transforms itself fundamentally or it disintegrates.