Exploring the Impact of the Euro on Europe's Future: A Comprehensive Look at the Common Currency's Pros and Cons

George: I have read Yanis Varoufakis 'Adult in the Room' & 'The Weak Suffer What They Must', & now Joseph E. Stiglitz 'The Euro: And its Threat to the Future of Europe'. I confess that I am a determined supporter of the U.K. leaving the EU, I am surprised to read that whilst both authors - far more qualified & knowledgeable than I, & both in favour of a united Europe - agree. I was hoping to find some 'pithy' comments that I could use in the frequent discussions in which I seem to get involved with 'remainers'. I've failed in that, because virtually the whole of the three books need reading to convince anyone living within the 27 states that this EU & the Euro currency as presently constituted, is a dog's breakfast & can only end in tears!

United Kingdom on Apr 01, 2022

Amazon Customer: Anyone who cares to be informed when voting, needs to get a grounding in economic concepts. While this book is about how the Euro is a muddle that needs to be reformed or abandoned, such arguments need to be made against a background of economics.

One thing is clear from the author who is a Nobel Laureate, ex chief economist at the World Bank but nevertheless a strong opponent of neoliberalism, is that what we have been doing since Reagan and Thatcher's changes have been disastrous for most people. Clearly this does not mean that people accept the evidence. Both Tory and New Labour were exactly the same in this as was and is the ECB. And there is the heart of the problem. A successful economy needs to be more than one in which GDP increases.

The majority have gone backwards which has lead to poor economic growth and the rise of the popular right.

As mentioned in my headline, the Chapter on Brexit is worth the cost of the book. It is frankly the best piece I have read on it. Not least because is calmly points out the problems for the angry people who did not (and still will not) accept the result of the referendum. Europe cannot stay still. It is not a panacea...

United Kingdom on Jul 16, 2020

georges ugeux: This book is most interesting in its demonstration of the failure of Europe and the Euro. But the assumption is basically wrong. Europe does not function only on money and its humanism is a deliberate choice for a world where other values play a role. Joseph Stiglitz has always been a fierce critic of the Euro and announce its death a few years ago. He might be well inspired to write about that analyzes why the Euro and the Eurozone, for all their weaknesses according to the textbooks, survived all odds, including his.

United States on Jan 23, 2020

Pierre Marie Boisson: I very much like the detailed and very professional assessment of why so different countries such as those of the Euro area, with so different development levels, can’t share the same currency. The authors brilliantly demonstrate how using a too strong currency affect competitiveness and growth of LDC countries, hence reducing welfare and fiscal revenue, leading concerned countries to borrow in order to boost consumption and incur unsustainable trade deficit and indebtedness. The author also correctly points out that austerity and structural adjustment policies advocated by IMF and Germany are ineffective and conducive to divergence rather then the convergence among Euro countries, one the expected benefit of the single currency adoption.

United States on Nov 06, 2019

Edoardo Angeloni: By a last analysis this book looks like very negative in relation to the formation for the UE. In fact Stiglitz explicates many arguments against the UE, but he doesn't arrive to affirm the paradox which it would be better to leave the single states with an its money. I think that the Nobel considers ugly the deep differences between the several States, but probably the unity of those States has been the less important evil. We should admit that, if there were errors in this process, the possibility of the money of flowing in all Europe is something of truly important. If some States are remained more poor, it needs structural reforms in a different way, but without being against the UE in its complex.

United States on Dec 17, 2017

Juan Saiz Cuesta: Livre montrant de façon lumineuse les défis que doit envisager l'Europe pour atteindre des niveaux santé sociale nécessaire une vie commune des nations

France on Oct 13, 2017

Robert E.: This is a superb treatment of the subject and an advanced course for most aspects of contemporary economics. What he teaches us applies far beyond the Euro situation.

For content the book deserves five stars plus But as an author Stiglitz acknowledges he requires assistance with his writing. So readers have to pay attention.

Of course two generations were spoilt by Paul Samuelson, who not only was a leading economists but an extraordinary explainer of complicated issues. One could do well on advanced exams in economics by just rereading Samuelson's relevant chapter in his introductory book.

United States on Jan 15, 2017

Stuart Beckenham: An excellent analysis of the theoretical misconceptions of the Euro compounded by the gross errors in its practical introduction. A devastating account of the political grandstanding which led to a decade of lost economic growth in Europe with its long-lasting consequences. When will politicians learn that economics drives politics and not the other way round? It's one of the long-standing misconceptions which politicians have held ever since the publication of Keynes's General Theory in the 1930s. One has to take account of the author's left-wing point of view, which leads to some questionable recipes for future policy, but his analysis of the introduction of the Euro and its devastating consequences not only for the likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland but for the Eurozone as a whole (including Germany) is essential reading for all policy makers. This is not a question of being wise after the event: from an economist's point of view it was all so obvious and avoidable from the outset.

United Kingdom on Sep 22, 2016

BuyFromMe: I read Parts 1 & 2 before skipping ahead to the Afterword. In it he says there had been wild exaggerations , if not outright lies, by those arguing for Brexit. This comment was interesting as I lived through the referendum campaign and I could, therefore, judge it for myself. I have to say I was surprised he criticises the Brexit campaign whilst ignoring the Remain campaign. The later was characterised as "project fear" and subsequent events have shown that most of the fears were overplayed by a wide margin. Moreover, the Remainers had the weight of the government machine behind them. So it left me wondering how balanced were some of his other judgements. I suspect that the scope of the book results in some of the summaries being a bit lob sided here and there.

United Kingdom on Sep 10, 2016

Athan: There are two Joseph Stiglitzes: the brilliant economist and the repetitive polemicist.

Unlike “The Price of Inequality,” a book wrapped by Stiglitz the rambling, Nobel-flashing celebrity blogger around the nucleus of a very incisive article written by Stiglitz the brilliant economist, this forward-planned, structured book is 100% the work of the brilliant economist. To be sure, he is starting to sound a lot like his alter ego, but the transformation is far from complete and what we have here is a genuinely exhaustive, if not amazingly deep, treatise that has a beginning, a middle and an end.

The book is divided in five sections (that are however grouped in four parts):

• First a “you are here” section that lays out the author’s views of where we stand and how we got here
• Second, a three-part expo on (i) how currency unions are meant to work, (ii) where the Euro diverges from this ideal and (iii) the (negative) role of the ECB
• Third, a long whine against the Troika’s work in Greece and (less so) Ireland
• Fourth, the Stiglitz manifesto of how to (semi-centrally, you have been warned!) run an economy, mischievously mis-branded...

United States on Sep 09, 2016