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.

As the rating agencies: Moody's, S&P, and Fitch continue to downgrade Eurozone debt from France to the PIIGS; the interest costs for government borrowing in Eurozone countries, with Germany excepted, continue to rise, as does the cost for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), a creation of the European Central Bank to provide liquidity. The Eurozone has been under pressure since the global recovery began in 2009-2010 as investors began to see the troubling signs of government overspending and high GDP ratios across the 17 member group. First to this bond vigilante parade was Greece, a member nation

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 influenced by John Monnet one of its founders and National Liberation Committee member at the time, was to build a stronger cohesive Europe through collaboration and economic ties to bring mutual prosperity. This organization and its ideals developed into the well know European Union of today, that currently sits with 28 members. However, one controversial possible membership has increased in importance over the years.

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

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 the largest budget deficits in the Eurozone, Greece is at the centre of the crisis. The crisis is a continuing interest to Congress due to the strong economic and political ties between the United States and Europe.

Despite the fact Germany is economically stronger among the rest of the Eurozone countries, it doesn't show interest in being a political titans and being in charge using France as a way to cover up the real extent of

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.

Greek crisis I n recent times, the Subprime mortgage crisis in the US seems to have metamorphosed into the Euro crisis. Since early 201 0, the Eurozone has been facing a major debt crisis. Such countries as Greece, I reland and Portugal have accumulated unsustainable levels of government debt.

In 1992, twelve countries came together and signed the Maastricht Treaty creating the European Union (Krajewska, 2014, pp. 6-25). The last obstacle that the EU had to face was the different currencies of each country, therefore a decade later on January 1, 1999 the Euro was created. Many countries that adopted the new currency fell within the Euro Area. Each country had to discontinue their old currency and the monetary policies giving control the newly formed European Central Bank (ECB), but each separate country still had their own fiscal policies one of the key reasons for the current debt crisis (Krajewska, 2014, pp. 6-25). The union of multiple countries into a central body seemed to be a wise choice for greater economic growth, but the failure from one country is a failure for all.

Europe’s debt crisis was initially triggered by events in the American banking sector. When a slowdown in the US economy caused over-extended American homeowners to default on their mortgages, banks all over the world with investments linked to those mortgages started losing money.

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.

With the lowest rating in the eurozone, Greek bonds are now viewed as a highly risky investment by foreign investors.9 Consequently, Greek bond yields increased in 2010. Greek 10-year bond yields used to be 10 to 40 basis points above German 10year bonds prior to the crisis. However, with the crisis, the spread increased to over 400 basis points in January 2010. This high bond spread further underscores investors’ loss of confidence in the Greek economy. 10 In April 2010, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, estimated Greece’s budget deficit to be 13.6% of GDP - almost a full percentage higher than the 12.7% estimate

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

The effect that this had on European countries was devastating. The money that they borrowed, they lost and when it came time to pay back, they simply couldn’t. The ripple effect that started in the United States, was now starting to destroy the economy in European countries starting the very beginning of