Essay Euro Zone Crisis

The European Union was initially set up as a means to terminate the conflict that occurred within Europe throughout the 20th century, culminating with the end of The Second World War (WWII) and The Cold War that followed. The EU ultimately aimed to bring the member countries together in order to form an ‘ever closer union’ between the countries of Europe, thus preventing a future battle. The Union started as the European Economic Community (EEC), which was established in 1957, and over the years endured numerous adjustments to form the politico-economic union that we know of today.

1. On January 4, 1999, eleven member states of the European Union initiated the European Monetary Union (EMU) and established a single currency, the euro, which replaced

economically independent countries thus avoid conflict. The common currency is the euro, this union has

Tim Randall Student Network Resources The weekend of May 5-6 opened a new chapter in the Eurozone debt crisis as voters in France and Greece voiced their disproval over current leadership. With news of France's Sarkozy losing the presidency, and "a dismal election result for Greece's pro-bailout parties" (Reuters.com. May 7, 2012. PP. 1); the future of the Eurozone continues to be shrouded in uncertainty. Debt yields for Greece, Ireland, and Portugal spiked as bond investors ruminated over fiscal and monetary policies. Likewise in Spain, the ten year bond pushed closer to the "psychologically important 6 percent" (Reuters.com. May 7, 2012. PP. 1) threshold. These events highlight the troubling issues of austerity, growth, and debt service which are weighing down the European economy, and as a result imperil the global economic growth story.

Another key factor in the development of the European Financial Crisis was the cultural geography of Europe. Generally, Germans are very hard workers, receive very little in pension during retirement (which tends to occur at a reasonable age), and pay their

The European Economic Community was an organization started in 1957 by France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg, in post War World II torn European. This organization was a union between the Steal and Coal Community and The European Atomic Energy Community. The goal of the organization, heavily

First with western Europe, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the east as well. Many of these attempts were successful. One of the first of these attempts was the Marshall Plan which was used as an instrument to restore the economies of western Europe and to establish democracies. The plan would provide economic aid to fight the post war affects of poverty and in return expected cooperation for mutual benefit. The plan strengthened western Europe not as allies with each other and not against anyone. Another internal cooperation efforts was the formation of the European Economic Community(or Common Market) in 1957. The six original members were very successful and managed to eliminate all tariffs within their countries. After seeing this success, other nations applied for membership and EEC became what is presently know as the European Union. The European Union has been very successful in its endeavors to mutually help the member economies. One of these successful endeavours was the implementation of a common currency. As of 2002, seventeen countries now share the euro as their currency. This unifies where language and culture are barriers but money is not. Another major success in unification was the addition of ten members of the European union in 2004. Most of these additions were former Soviet bloc countries who had just a little over a decade free from Soviet influence. While this was a

The global economic recession of 2008 shook economies all around the world. Some of the largest countries saw a massive reduction in their GDP, and Italy saw its economy shrink 3%. Italy still hasn’t recovered from the hit it took in 2008, and it is still causing problems for the country. Italy’s debt actually isn’t their problem, but it is the root problem. Italy has carried debt to GDP ratios well above 100% for over 20 years, but only now are they having serious economic issues.

The Greece debt crisis started in the year 2009 where one of the largest rating companies downgraded Greece bond to a low rate and mentioned that Greece has the opportunity to default their debt (Greece timeline 2012). Austerity measure has been reveal in the January 2010. During March 2010, Greece finance minister claim Greece has suffer

Abstract The Eurozone is facing a serious sovereign debt crisis. Several Eurozone member countries have high, potentially unsustainable levels of public debt. Three—Greece, Ireland, and Portugal—have borrowed money from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to avoid default. With the largest public debt and one of

Marsh gives interesting arguments developing the various reasons by which the crises is in place and some solutions like producing a political union for all members and breaking deals among creditors and debtors despite thinking the EU is not currently led strongly or cohesively enough to achieve them. A core argument

Greece government’s debt has been around since 2010. The countries surrounding Greece are now worried that it may affect them. The economy in Greece started getting worse after United Stated had its crisis in 2007. Since Greece entered the Eurozone changes in the economy, financial stability, and employment had caused Greece to go into more debt, but it could have been avoided if Greece would have not entered the Eurozone.

The terrible internal economies control. The countries in euro area, especially Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain lost their control over the domestic financial situation. Specifically, Greece had long standing financial problems. The government spent largely on the social welfare, and had a great number of public servants who had extremely generous wage and pension benefits. Besides, the government had little control over its budget deficit, leading a long standing financial budget overrun. In Ireland, the estate bubble greatly destroyed government tax income and consumption power of public. Portugal’s lasting recruitment policies led to a great number of redundant public servants. The Italian economy suffered from the high unemployment rate and high tax rate, and had a slow growth in recent years.

EU was founded in 1957 with a goal to build a common market. To achieve this goal a close co-operation on economic and fiscal policies between member states is needed. Hence, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was born in order to achieve the single market goal. The coordination in Economic and Monetary Union involves the economic and fiscal policies through a common monetary policy for all member states and a common currency, euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) was created to take care of the monetary policy of the Eurozone and to be the national central banks of the euro area countries.

In 1999 seventeen countries in the European Union adopted the Euro forming a Euro Area. With the adoption of the Euro these seventeen countries discontinued their old currencies and monetary policies. Monetary Policies