A look at the positive and negative aspects of the new European monetary unit on the U.S. economy.
The following paper examines how and why the United States has a considerable amount at stake as the Euro takes its place in the world financial system despite the substantial benefits of the dollar’s leadership status
For quite some time, Europe has been in need of a uniform currency to simplify transactions both inside and outside the continent. As of January 1, 1999, this goal was finally realized when the Euro was declared the official currency for Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Finland. One year later, Greece also adopted the Euro as its official currency. From this time on, the old exchange rates between the participating currencies were replaced by fixed conversion rates. The European Central Bank (ECB) became responsible for all monetary and currency policy decisions within the community (Issing, et. al., 2001).