The architects of the euro thought political momentum would rectify flaws in their plan; the momentum might finally be here.Jean Pisani-Ferry, European Voice, May 28,2012
When the architects of the euro started drawing up plans for its creation in the late 1980s, economists warned them that a viable monetary union required more than an independent central bank and a framework for budgetary discipline.
Study after study emphasised asymmetries within the future common-currency area, the possible inadequacy of a one-size-fits-all monetary policy, the weakness of adjustment channels in the absence of cross-border labour mobility, and the need for some sort of fiscal union involving insurance-type mechanisms to assist countries in trouble.
Beyond economics, many observers noted that European Union citizens would accept tight monetary bonds only if they were participating in a shared political community. The former president of the Bundesbank, Hans Tietmeyer, liked to quote a mediaeval French philosopher, Nicolas Oresme, who wrote that money does not belong to the prince, but to the community. The question was: which political community would support the euro?
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