Friday, February 25, 2011

The question goes deeper....

In researching my topic about the Euro and the health of the European Union/Eurozone some interesting questions have come up. One of which is a case study (this goes along with my thesis) of whether single currencies can survive in a multi-country setting. There was quite a bit of talk years ago about a one world government (conspiracy of course but interesting nonetheless) as well as a single currency. There was even mention of the "Amero" a while back, a single currency for all of the Americas. Now I don't have any plans on delving into conspiracy theory or even speculating on hypotheticals but the topic of my thesis was/is unintentionally close to this subject.

Does a single currency work over multiple countries? The most obvious study of this would be the Euro/EU, but have there been other examples of this? If so what/when/where? Results...? This is the course of my research right now, I'm struggling a bit with sources but as I go deeper more resources are becoming available.

This is where the early American colonies have been crossing my mind, that was one example of multiple currencies being used in a single country (that was essentially operating as 13 different countries).

So the question is leading a bit of one direction:

1. can any other scenario, besides one country with one currency, work?

I won't let this get me too far off track but I believe there are interesting and relevant parallels to be drawn here, is the current/most used system of one currency per country the only way? What will we be able to learn from the example of the EURO/EUROZONE?

There is lots of pro-Euro research that supports the viability of the Euro as well as research supporting the demise of the Euro. For example the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claud Trichet was quoted as saying about the Euro, "A currency which keeps its value fully in line with its definition of price stability - with annual inflation rate of less than two per cent, close to two per cent - over almost 12 years is a currency which inspires confidence."

A great source of this material is author and Professor of finance Salil Sarkar, he speaks of the positives of the Euro and the challenges it faces in the future... the very near future. One big challenge the European Union faces, he mentions, is the lack of a real centralized authority.

Back to my thesis, can the Euro survive without becoming one single absolutely united country? Sarkar does not believe it can, nor do I. I am still leaning towards the unite or disintegrate as regards to the Euro and EU.

Sarkar, Salil "Will the Euro Survive?" http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20100628-will-euro-survive (Accessed Feb 23, 2011)

Lanman, Scott: Dorning, Mike: "Geithner Says He's Confident Europe will "fix" Debt Crisis"http://bloom.bg/fFEBYt (Accessed Feb 21 2011)

Sarkar, Salil "Will Austerity Save Europe From Crisis" http://rfi.my/i9mCa2 (Accessed Feb 25 2011)


2 comments:

Mark Jeffreys said...

Jared,

I'm beginning to really grasp your question now, thanks. That's important by the way, not merely because it means your professor finally is getting a clue, but because it means that you're writing about the topic well and engagingly, enough so that an interested layperson with no background in the field could understand both the topic and your reasoning. Now, I'm interested in seeing more and more of your sources, arrayed in terms of how they relate to and have an impact on your central question.

Scott Abbott said...

Jared, let me just add my voice to Mark's: more sources, more information, more to work with! Move beyond this start to really become an expert. We all do that by reading like crazy and taking careful notes.