The sad story of how a great idealistic adventure in bringing nations and peoples together was side-tracked down the dead end street of monetary union making it the low growth high unemployment black spot it has become, is one that is all too often clouded by ideology, prejudice and obtuse stupidity. Gallagher's analysis is both objective and full of insights, making the tragedy an important subject for study by students and those who want to understand what went wrong'. ‘Europe's Path to Crisis is an un-illusioned examination of the current state of the European Union, which cuts through both its past success in assisting to bring peace to a riven continent and its large ideals for the future - to a present which shows few signs that the Union's institutions can renew themselves sufficiently, or develop a popular democratic base convincingly. That needs to be recognised before a real reconstruction can be attempted.’ ‘It is good to see a critique of the crisis that the Euro has brought to the economies and democracies of Europe. The single currency is an orphan currency in search of a country to love it and back it. It is now driving European political union, without the consent of many of the people tied up in it. The long shadow of high unemployment, huge surpluses and deficits that are difficult to finance, and deep recessions stalks the zone thanks to the EU's inability to think it through and sell it to the people. It is good to see more of this being pointed out’ ‘As Gallagher shows the EU setup is a one-way street in the direction of ever closer union. But centralisation is a recipe for mutual resentment, not mutual understanding, among the peoples of Europe. The EU empire breeds regulation and thereby weakens Europe from within’. ‘The dark heart of ‘Europe’ revealed, the disaster of monetary union conceived in the dream of a centralised country called ‘Europe’ and delivered by amateur caesarean in crisis and panic, this book is a must for anyone wanting to understand what ‘Europe’ is really about’. This is a very good, straightforward account of the making of the monster and the consequences of turning that modern Frankenstein, the euro, loose on the poorer EU states.
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