In Defense of the Euro: An Austrian Perspective (With a Critique of the Errors of the ECB and the Interventionism of Brussels)

Huerta de Soto Jesús ()
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Huerta de Soto Jesús: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, 2013, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-28

Abstract: Economists of the Austrian School are supporters of the gold standard because it hinders and restricts arbitrary policies and rulers: it disciplines the behavior of all the agents involved in the democratic process and encourages people to act orderly and morally. It is, in fact, an obstacle to the lies and demagoguery because it spreads and facilitates transparency and truth in social relations. The creation of the euro in 1999 and its final implementation in 2002 assumed the disappearance of monetary nationalism and flexible exchange rates in most of continental Europe. We will discuss the errors committed by the European Central Bank. It is now seen how the different states of the European Monetary Union have given and completely lost their monetary autonomy, that is to say the ability to manipulate their local currency to serve political needs. In this sense, the euro has therefore acted, at least for the countries of the euro area, very similar to that which was, in its time, the gold standard manner. This is why the euro should be considered a real equivalent, albeit imperfect, of the gold standard.

Keywords: euro; Austrian economics; exchange rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1515/jeeh-2013-0012

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