The Euro and the Battle of Ideas - Tapa dura

Winner of the 2017 Gold Medal in International Business / Globalization, Axiom Business Book Awards One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 "If we turn to The Euro and the Battle of Ideas by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau, we start to find an explanation. The three authors are, respectively, a German academic economist, an English economic historian, and a French banker turned economics professor, and their book is an attempt to explain the euro's ideological and historic background. They explore the dichotomy between French and German political-economic philosophies. The first values flexibility and solidarity and state intervention; the second stresses rules and consequences and free markets."--John Lanchester, New Yorker "In The Euro and the Battle of Ideas, the economists Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau turn a sharp lens on the basic divide between France and Germany."--Rana Foroohar, New York Review of Books "A book of depth and subtlety that is helpful in understanding matters well outside the questions it seems to address... This is a fascinating and informative book."--Geoffrey Wood, Central Banking Journal "[The authors] have the advantage of being deeply involved... If Europe is high on your list of concerns, you should read this book; European leaders will."--David Warsh, Economic Principals "[The Euro and the Battle of Ideas] demonstrates the value of sophisticated syntheses of policy analysis and intellectual history."--Foreign Affairs "Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau have just published a fascinating book, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas, in which they bring together their respective skills in economic theory, economic history and economic policy to bear on one of the most important macroeconomic problems of our times--the rules versus discretion debate. Anyone who has studied this debate--and that's just about anyone who has taken a course in economics--would benefit from reading this book."--Economics One bog

Why is Europe's great monetary endeavor, the Euro, in trouble? A string of economic difficulties in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and other Eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive. In this book, Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau argue that the core problem with the Euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, particularly Germany and France. But the authors also show how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe's survival. As the authors demonstrate, Germany, a federal state with strong regional governments, saw the Maastricht Treaty, the framework for the Euro, as a set of rules. France, on the other hand, with a more centralized system of government, saw the framework as flexible, to be overseen by governments. The authors discuss how the troubles faced by the Euro have led its member states to focus on national, as opposed to collective, responses, a reaction explained by the resurgence of the battle of economic ideas: rules vs. discretion, liability vs. solidarity, solvency vs. liquidity, austerity vs. stimulus. Weaving together economic analysis and historical reflection, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas provides a forensic investigation and a road map for Europe's future.