As the eurozone crisis deepens and political leaders flail in the face of the huge debts that have left financial institutions and member states teetering on the brink, it is important to understand how we got here if we are ever to figure a way out. In 2005, well before the financial crisis, when the EU was confidently pursuing expansion, John was contemplating the consequences of increased integration without genuine economic discipline in his article, The right to join Europe’s club is not a reward. A year later, in an incredibly insightful piece, he considered what would happen if Italy had to leave the euro, in If Italy thinks the unthinkable about the eurozone. In 2006 it was almost unthinkable, now it is a very real possibility.
In his more recent articles on Europe John discusses the fudamental flaw in continually providing resources to enable member states to fight markets in Europe’s elite is fighting reality and will lose. He also asks what we might learn from the US in American lessons in how to run a single currency.
