“Systemic contradictions” The Eurozone De Facto Currency Peg and Death Spiral

[Joanne98]

By Gonzalo Lira, a novelist and filmmaker (and economist) currently living in Chile

Critics of free-market capitalism, especially of the Marxist persuasion, love talking about its “systemic contradictions”. Especially European critics—they adore using that steam-roller phrase: “systemic contradictions”. It sounds so thrillingly lapidary, so discussion-ending, so terminal. Nothing can escape its grasp, or the base indignity of it. “They will fail because of Systemic Contradictions!!”—like a cross between a nasty form of cancer, and some unmentionable venereal disease. And of course 100% fatal.

It’s ironic that European critics of free-market capitalism love that phrase—because it aptly describes the Europe of today, and the European monetary union that was hailed as the way of the future.

I would argue that, with the way things are going, it’s Europeans and their Eurozone which will soon be relegated to the dustbin of the past. Precisely because of its “systemic contradictions”.

The end of the Eurozone will be a tragedy—and I would argue, we are currently witnessing it.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/04/gonzalo-lira-%e2%80%9csystemic-contradictions%e2%80%9d-the-eurozone-de-facto-currency-peg-and-the-death-spiral-we-are-currently-witnessing.html