Sep 2, 2012

Eurozone: Just Consider What Must Be Overcome

Just consider what must be overcome:

- economic divergence and deepening recessions;
- irreversible balkanization of the banking system and financial markets;
- unsustainable debt burdens for public and private agents;
- daunting growth and balance-sheet costs in countries that pursue internal devaluation and deflation to restore competitiveness;
- asymmetrical adjustment, with moral-hazard risks in the core and insufficient financing in the periphery fueling incompatible political dynamics;
- fickle and impatient markets and investors;
- austerity fatigue in the periphery and bailout fatigue in the core;
- the absence of conditions for an optimal currency area; and serious difficulties in achieving full fiscal, banking, economic, and political union.

- in Project Syndicate 

Nouriel Roubini is an American economist. He teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business and is the chairman of Roubini Global Economics.