Financial oversight, the third flawed pillar of the European Union: the missing piece in the Arestis-Sawyer critique of EMU macropolicy design

Gary A. Dymski and Annina Kaltenbrunner

International Review of Applied Economics, 2021, vol. 35, issue 3-4, 371-388

Abstract: This paper presents a chronological survey of the 20 academic papers that Malcolm authored or co-authored between 1997 and 2017 on the flawed design – and hence flawed implementation – of the European Monetary Union (EMU)’s macroeconomic policy pillars. We augment his analyses by pointing out a third – complementary – design flaw: the EMU’s two-tiered structure of financial regulation and oversight. While this financial pillar aimed at reconciling Europe’s historically bank-based financial systems with large European banks’ entry into global financial competition, it created a combustible mix when combined with the EMU’s macroeconomic-policy pillars. The Global Financial Crisis lit the fire: member-nations, forced to rescue their domestically-chartered too-big-to-fail megabanks, had to adopt austerity policies that both slowed the pace of post-crisis economic growth and eroded support for pro-Union political leaders. Only marginal changes have been made in these policy pillars post-crisis. Consequently, Europe faces a financial bifurcation point: either to continue ‘whatever it takes’ support for its megabanks, or to rethink both its financial architecture and its macroeconomic and financial policy pillars.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2021.1894657

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