Title: The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace - HISTORY
Headings: The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace
The Euro: How a Common Currency Helped Europe Achieve Peace
A vision of peace led to the first economic union in Europe
Economic volatility made currency reform more important than ever
It took decades for a plan to emerge
How the currency got its name
A high-minded design—and an orderly rollout
Will the euro survive?
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Content: The prospect of one or multiple countries leaving the economic alliance unsettled the international markets, and the European Union was criticized for standardizing only its currency, not its financial systems. The EU bailed out multiple countries, but the future of the economic alliance is still an open question. “Although they described the project in grand terms, Europeans set about creating an “incomplete monetary union,” one that had a common monetary policy but lacked the fiscal safeguards to dampen booms and recessions,” writes economist Ashoka Mody for Quartz. “ Within this incomplete structure, conflicts involving the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy were bound to arise.” With Brexit on the horizon, the future of the eurozone is still unclear. But the ubiquity of the euro is not. Today, nearly 1.2 trillion euro are in circulation, and the currency has been more valuable than the dollar for nearly two decades. Europe’s risky gamble on a common currency may still pay off. Until then, it pays for the practicalities and pleasures of 19 members of the EU—one ambitious coin, banknote, or wire transfer at a time. FACT CHECK: