This paper investigates the causes behind the euro debt crisis, particularly Germany's role in it. It is argued that the crisis is not primarily a "sovereign debt crisis" but rather a (twin) banking and balance of payments crisis. Intra-area competitiveness and current account imbalances, and...

This paper investigates why Europe fared particularly poorly in the global economic crisis that began in August 2007. It questions the self-portrait of Europe as the victim of external shocks, pushed off track by reckless policies pursued elsewhere. It argues instead that Europe had not only...

The arrival in France of the euro in 2002, and the withdrawal of the franc, have been anticipated within many companies in all operational areas (payroll, billing and accounting for example). As far as price policy is concerned, the company must determine, beyond the compulsory legal conversion,...

Early research work confirms that the use of the new European currency, the euro, could create an effect of money illusion: expressed in euros, perceived prices seem lower and price elasticity diminished. But it also concludes on the complexity of the relationship between prices, currency unit...

In the first section of this paper, the author demonstrates the crucial significance of anchoring symbolically a currency in the representation of a social whole, not least when practical and technical problems bound up with the creation of a new unit of account and the associated means of...

Les nations du sud de la zone Euro ont connu la prospérité dans les années qui ont suivi la création de la monnaie unique. Le bond de la consommation et l’élévation du niveau de vie se sont hélas révélés être des mirages. En favorisant un endettement massif, l’Euro a encouragé un...