Euro Crash is a unique analysis of the European Monetary Union, arguing that it was not sub-optimal currency areas or profligate government spending but instead fatal flaws in monetary design and an appalling series of policy mistakes by the European Central Bank that lead to the current and ongoing Eurozone crisis. Brendan Brown shows how the inflation-targeting regime established by the ECB right at the start, coupled with the reckless dismantling of the old Bundesbank's monetary framework, contributed decisively to the ensuing gross failures. Further factors in the fatal cocktail included long-term French monetary nationalism, empowered by a French President at the head of the ECB, and the succumbing of euro officials to the same deflation phobia which had gripped the Federal Reserve. In exploring these themes, Dr. Brown draws on both traditional monetarist and Austrian School economic literature. He demonstrates that the European Sovereign Debt Crisis is in fact the bust phase of a credit bubble which to a critical extent was manufactured in Frankfurt's Euro Tower. This revised edition of Euro Crash turns its attention towards the issue of asset price inflations, discussing its origin, how it attacks the economic and financial system, and the role of the central bankers (both in Europe and the US) in intensifying the swings in the temperature of speculative fever. It also includes a brand new chapter on how the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and ECB President, Draghi, joined in an effective coup during the summer of 2012 against the monetary constitution (in the Maastricht Treaty) and how they prevailed against weak opposition. This book will be of great interest to all those searching for explanations and prescriptions outside the box of conventional thinking and beyond the 'passing the buck' remedies of euro officials.
Includes bibliographical references and index.