EU Must Seize Hamilton Moment to Lift Euro's Role
Europe’s shared currency may be on the cusp of finally challenging the supremacy of the dollar.
The euro may finally be poised to challenge the dollar.
Photographer: Hannelore Foerster/Getty Images
Perhaps the war in Ukraine and a global pandemic may accomplish what years of a nasty sovereign debt crisis in the European Union never could: foster a tighter fiscal partnership that makes the euro an attractive alternative to the dollar.
At the height of the crisis in the euro zone almost a decade ago, many said joint bond issuance was the missing link for a more meaningful union among its members, of which 19 are now part of the single currency. But sharing the responsibility for liabilities with profligate nations such as Greece, Portugal and Italy was a red line that more austere members such as Germany were not willing to cross no matter how many bailouts they had to secure for their indebted southern partners.