The Eurozone Crisis: Debt, Division, and Inevitability

Introduction

After World War II, most of the advanced industrialized economies in the world was in shambles, save for one the United States. The US had largely been unscathed by the violence of the war and at the same time had built an industrial machine that would power its economy for several decades to come. For many years the nations of Europe eyed the US markets with envy. As individual economies they could never compete on an economic scale, but together they could match and even exceed power of the US marketplace. As early as 1970 in the Werner report and in 1992 in the Maastricht Treaty the idea was to create a unified Europe with closer economic ties and a single currency. 16 member states came together to adopt the single currency, hence the Euro was born.

The Euro was intended to represent the deepening ties of a more unified Europe. It has instead showcased many of the economic disparities between the members of the coalition. These disparities are structural in many cases, though some represent the inherent difficulties in combining differing culture, languages, and governance into one. A crisis of sovereign debt in 2010 has threatened to derail the entire project. It has also highlighted the flaws in the union and without fast and specific action regarding those flaws the Euro and the Eurozone will likely break apart into much smaller parts or be broken completely taking the Euro with it.

While some measures have been taken to stem the tide all of the efforts are hampered by a lack of singular leadership and pols that are answerable to constituents not favorable to what are seen as bailouts of irresponsible nations. This was always inevitability, the question is will this make the Union stronger or destroy it?

History of the European Union and the Euro

The history of the European Union begins with World War II. The scale and scope of that War has shaped the world for many years since its end....