We don’t need no federation:
What a devolved eurozone should look like
At the heart of the eurozone’s troubles lies a fundamental contradiction. On the one hand, the economics of a monetary union requires considerable integration of policies at eurozone level, and a high degree of economic discipline at national level. On the other hand, most people in the eurozone do not want to be ruled by some kind of ‘eurozone government’. They prefer national democracies – of the sort that struggle to impose sufficient discipline. This contradiction is both intellectually and politically hard to resolve.