Lord Skidelsky on the EU Debt Crisis. European Economics students, take note. We'll discuss this in class.
"But the Eurozone crisis is more specifically due to structural biases arising from the operation of the EMU. An analysis I have found particularly compelling has been offered by a network of radical economists called Research on Money and Finance.
They point to the sharp internal division which has emerged between the core, led by Germany and including Holland, and the periphery of Spain, Portugal, and Greece. (Ireland is a special case). Core and periphery are best considered regions rather than countries: France straddles both. This division has been reflected in the progressive loss of competitiveness by the periphery. The competitiveness of the core has benefited from pressure on workers’ wages which, in Germany, has meant practically stagnant real wages for well over a decade."
via Robert Skidelsky - Europe’s Debt Crisis and Implications for Policy.