The causes of the debt crisis in Europe and the role of regional integration

The factors that allow the launch of a speculative attack, such as those on he government debts of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy in 2010, are always multiple. In this case, they can be found in some simultaneous events (e.g. the regional German elections of the 9th of May), in some previous faulty behaviors of the governments under attack, and in some defects of the institutional organization of the European Monetary Union. Those who believe that the operation of market forces (and of financial speculation) is always able to bring about efficiency tend to stress the role played by the faulty behaviors of the authorities. Those holding a different standpoint tend to blame the faults in the institutional organization that have prevented the authorities from operating effectively against the speculative attack. For those having faith in the “market efficiency hypothesis”, the government of Greece and of the other countries under attack failed to take advantage of the positive trend of the world economy before the financial crisis.