Eichengreen's work is very important. You could also listen to Tom Sargent's Nobel Prize lecture which was on exactly this topic and is on the Nobel Prize Website. It was published in the JPE.
A number of economic historians have also written about the history of the U.S. and other monetary unions -- My colleague Mike Bordo, Lars Jonung, Farley Grubb, Arthur Rolnick, and Warren Weber, come immediately to mind. I am not without sin. Google should reveal all.
----- Original Message -----
From: "M.E.G.M.Rol" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 10:32:08 AM
Subject: Re: [SHOE] a question about the Euro, in historical/comparative/theoretical perspective
Two very good (and fascinating-to-read) books answering almost all of Peter's questions are (by the same author) :
Barry Eichengreen,
(1994) International monetary arrangements for the 12st century. Brookings Inst.
(2011) Exorbitant privilege. Oxford
The 2011 publication is very well readable for a non-economist. The 1994 book is more difficult, but answers more of Peter's questions.
For the rest, I must say that I also often wonder whether the US are really so different from Europe.
Menno Rol
On 06-06-12, "Peter G. Stillman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I am writing as a non-economist.
I am wondering, amidst all the problems the Euro is currently having, about historical and comparative and theoretical treatments of similar currency/integration problems, because I have seen none, except for what can be gleaned from *The Economist*.
What interests me, for instance, is that people talk of how different the Greek political economy is from the German and how therefore they cannot exist together with the same currency without great strains .... perhaps so great that the Greeks should leave, or the Euro will fall apart.
But -- and here is where I am really clearly a non-economist, sorry -- when I look at the US, now or in 1787 or 1890, I see a country as diverse as Europe economically, but maintaining a single currency. Why the difference?
Or, when nascent states were introducing single currencies (the English pound into Scotland and Ireland, the German mark throughout the newly consolidated Empire in the latter half of the 19th century), were there similar concerns about the single currency?
How would various economic theorists treat these historical/comparative issues? Are there any economic theoretical treatments about bringing together disparate economies into one unit? (sorry, again, my ignorance)
As a political theorist, I'd be inclined to think that political power played a role, at least in my above examples: the silver battles of the populist times were the equivalent of the Greeks, the losers in the unified economic organization, trying to change the rules; but the powerful East Coast financial interests would not let them. I'd suspect the same was true about the English pound in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (pre-1923).
But I would like to get some good, history of economy theory answers. Can you help.
Thanks, Peter
--
Peter G. Stillman
Department of Political Science
Vassar College (#463)
124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0463
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http://faculty.vassar.edu/stillman/
http://petergstillman.wordpress.com/about/
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