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Abstract

We examine how the Euro crisis continues to haunt the Mediterranean region of the European Union. Its legacies and the region's particular economic exposure make it especially vulnerable to the economic shock from the COVID-19 crisis. Without concerted EU-wide and regional action, the exposures of the region's banks can again throw the EU into crisis. This research is in honor of our late friend and Private Debt Project editor, Sherle Schwenniger.

Although the Eurozone appeared calm before the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent economic and financial shocks, it is now clear that the Eurozone’s underlying macroeconomic imbalances, coupled with self-imposed shutdowns, will severely hurt the economies of the European Mediterranean or ‘Euro-Med’ that have only recently begun to stabilize after the Great Financial Crisis.

The Euro-Med includes Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. These countries experienced different recovery paths since the last Great Financial Crisis, but they are more similar than different when comparing their economic situations to Central or Northern countries.

THE ‘EURO-MED’ AFTER COVID

Author(s): LEONARDO DINICAND and JUSTIN EDERHEIMER

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Author(s)

Leonardo Dinic

[email protected]

Leonardo Dinic is a New York University alumnus, with a Master’s Degree in International Relations, focusing on International Politics and Business. Leo is a frequent contributor to ChinaUsFocus.com, where he analyzes China-US rivalry in geopolitics, emerging technologies, and the world economy. Leo is fluent in Serbo-Croatian and specializes in the politics of Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. His MA thesis, “A Hungarian Example Within a Global Trend: How Populists Abandoned Liberal Democracy and Pivoted Toward Illiberal Governance,” was recognized by the Program in International Relations at NYU as the Outstanding MA Thesis for the 2018 – 2019 academic year.

Justin Ederheimer

[email protected]

"Justin is a writer and researcher based in New York City."

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES

Richard Vague on Why Large Rapid Build Ups of Private Debt Cause Financial Crises.

An excerpt from The Next Economic Disaster: Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It.

America's Private Debt Problem: How Private Debt is Slowing Down Growth and Hurting the Middle Class

A World Economic Roundtable report on private debt and the American middle class.

A Guide to Essential Readings on Private Debt

Private Debt Bonanza, Public Debt Legacies: The Euro-Zone’s Experience With Liberalized Private Finance Under Its Ill-Designed Currency Union

How institutional design and austerity is destroying the European economy

The ‘Euro-Med’ after COVID: Possibilities of Both a Solvency and Banking Crisis