10 years of euro: success?

Economic landscape undoubtedly changed in the last year or so. The “great moderation” gave way to a ‘great recession”. Whatever the causes for this turn in short term economic fortunes of many nations, one surmises that many trends and dynamics (so called fundamentals) observed in many world economies in the last decade still exist, albeit hidden in the avalanche of economic news in the last several months. As the Czech economist Karel Kouba pointed out more than 40 years ago, economies are not gymnasiums – jumps, sharp turns and rollovers are the trade of politicians and journalists. For economists these border on illusions spiced with wishful thinking. After all, an economic reality is more like a transoceanic tanker – large, slow, clumsy, with enormous momentum of its own and extremely difficult to turn. Contributions in this volume reflect this persistence of economic fundamentals. This book brings together the range of economist from EU member countries, USA and Japan. The discussion is divided into three parts. Four chapters in the first part provide the Eurozone-wide perspectives on the variety of issues. The second part of the book addresses the complex issues associated with the inflation processes in both the Eurozone and countries which will join the Eurozone in the future. The third part of the book then covers some microeconomic issues connected with the adoption of the common currency. The book is an essentials resource for all academics interested in European economics and EU integration.