Matthew Yglesias: Nine Facts about Greece and the Eurozone Crisis

Econintersect:  Matthew Yglesias has edited and produced what Vox.com purports to be a collection of “9 facts about Greece and the eurozone crisis“:

1. The eurozone is a political project, not an economic one
2. The eurozone crisis isn’t really over
3. An election in Greece caused the latest outbreak of drama
4. Debt didn’t cause the crisis
5. The single currency itself caused the original eurozone economic crisis
6. The crisis nearly became a global catastrophe
7. Europe now has even bigger economic problems
8. Europe’s institutions are clumsy at making decisions
9. Syriza’s strategy could have worked – five years ago

Econintersect finds this summary to be quite factual and recommends it for anyone wanting a very basic background on what the European Union (EU) is, what the Eurozone within the EU is and what the objectives and basic operational characteristics of the arrangements are.  In the map below the 27 EU countries are shown in two colors, with the red countries being the 19 members of the Eurozone common currency users.  Denmark is shown in green because it is a member of the EU subject to four exceptions specific to Denmark alone (opt-outs).  Shown in pink are Montenegro (active EU application) and Kosovo (working toward an EU membership application).

Hat tip to Roger Erickson.

John Lounsbury