Lessons for the euro from early US monetary and financial history
Watch Jeffry Frieden's lecture delivered at Bruegel on 25 May 2016. Europe's central goal for several decades has been to create an economic union that can provide monetary and financial stability. This goal is often compared to the long standing monetary union that is the United States. Easy celebration of the successful American union ignores the fact that it took an extremely long time to accomplish. In fact, the creation and completion of the US monetary and financial union was a long, laborious, and politically conflictual process.