It was one of the most dramatic and radical policy reversals in European Union history. In less than 48 hours, Germany not only executed a seismic shift in its domestic budget policy but also suddenly pushed to rewrite the EU’s fiscal rules it itself helped to draft.
Brussels welcomed the first move as a long-overdue response to years of urging Germany to invest more, rather than let itself be constrained by a constitutional limit on borrowing.
But the second? That was seen as a unilateral move — an overcorrection that unsettled even Germany’s closest allies.
The amount of trade between EU countries forces them to have an equalized exchange rate. That has been true since long before the Euro was even implemented, and the constant pressure on a particular currency that had a hard time keeping the fixed exchange rate frequently brought turmoil. If you don’t believe me, just look up Black Wednesday 1992.
The Euro is just the financial manifestation of that forced equalization. A manifestation that gives consumers greater price transparency in cross border dealings. If it really had had a major role in the rise of the far right, countries that use the Euro would have seen a greater rise than those that do not, and that really doesn’t seem to be the case.
I very clearly said “ultimately contributing to the rise of the far right” not “had had a major role in…”