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Politics and Monetary Union

Is political union a prerequisite for a successful monetary union? Peter Rousseau tackles this question by looking at how monetary union arose in the United States. He argues that is was not until well after the Civil War that the US achieved a stable monetary union. In other words, it look a long time for the US to achieve monetary union. Maybe there is hope for the EU. However, the EU is not a political union in the same sense that the US was or is. You can read a review of the paper at NEP-HIS Blog and the full article is available here. 

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