Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Coe, Richard

Keywords

European Union, Economic, Euro

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

This work provides an up-to-date analysis of the current economic environment in the United States and Europe in order to evaluate whether the current European economic crisis will unravel the Euro Zone, as failing economies remove the euro as their national currency. The work concludes that unless the European Union garners the political will to earnestly investigate each economy's financial and banking systems, restructure and recapitalize bad loans and banks, and agree on common fiscal policy the Euro Zone will unravel as it is today. In the first chapter of the body of the work, context is given by explaining macroeconomic indicators, the economics of shocks, monetary integration, and currency competition. This well help the reader understand the analysis and conclusions. Also, an economic snapshot of the United States is provided as an example. The second chapter surveys the economic landscape of Europe by presenting and analyzing the major macroeconomic indicators of each member state in snapshots. The third chapter analyzes the current economic crises in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain as well as discussing problems facing Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The last chapter concludes by providing a possible future scenario in which Greece defaults on its debt and possible solutions. In order for Europe to maintain economic prosperity, the European Union must politically and fiscally unite so member governments may sustain effective control over economic and policy instruments under a fixed exchange rate system with small, open economies.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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