Financialisation and monetary union in Europe: the monetary-structural causes of the euro-area crisis

The merging of national currencies into a single-currency area is an important factor of financialisation in Europe, as it has disposed of monetary barriers within Euroland, thereby allowing free mobility of financial capital in the form of bank deposits across the whole European Monetary Union (EMU). This monetary–structural change has increased economic divergence and financial instability within the euro area, rather than being a factor of stability and convergence. Further, the payment infrastructure within the EMU is defective, as it leaves the payee’s country with a claim on the payer’s country. This is a monetary–structural factor of financial imbalances across Euroland. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.