Euron Your Own

Euron Your Own

THE EUROPEAN ECONOMY HAS COLLAPSED: U.S. ENTERS DEPRESSION. Thankfully, the previous statement has not come true. Yet. But in order to stop a global economic crisis, The European Union (EU) has to get rid of the Euro. Since its creation in 2002, the economy of Europe has fluctuated wildly (Gabel). The Euro has caused nothing but trouble, and it is time for the EU to send it into permanent timeout. The main reason why the Euro was such a terrible idea is because if one or more countries such as Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain (Krugman) were to accumulate massive debt, it would effectively bring down the economies of other EU members (France lost its AAA credit rating recently) (Schneider, Cody). To fix the European economy and thereby stabilize the global economy, the Euro must be eliminated.

When World War II ended, the countries that would later make up the EU went on business as usual. Each country had its own currency, which meant that if someone wanted to tour Europe, he/she would have to exchange currencies at each exchange station. The first step to creating a unified Europe was in 1951, when 6 countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) signed the Treaty of Paris. When it officially took effect in 1952, it established the European Coal and Steel Company (ECSC)(Gabel). This was a huge step in creating the EU the world knows today.

After the ECSC was created, in 1957 the countries involved in the creation of the ECSC took it another step further, establishing the European Atomic Energy Company (Euratom). The purpose of this was to bring the energy companies under one energy grid. Euratom was just a side-note to the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor to The European Central Bank (ECB) (IBID). The developments made in the 1950’s paved the way for the Single European Act, and later, the EU.

Most likely the biggest thing that came out of the pre-EU era is the Single European Act, brought...