One of the problems is the one-size-fits-all nature of euro-area monetary policy.
Monetary policy is the area in which clueless conservatives are the most clueless.
Other than monetary policy, no area of economic discussion is more confused than the one about government spending and budget deficits.
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In the area of monetary policy, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has moved aggressively, cutting its target for the federal funds rate by a total of 225 basis points since September, including 125 basis points during January alone.
One is the impact of such a tenuous recovery on monetary policy in the euro area.
With the euro up and running, some argue that the next big project for the euro area is not monetary, but fiscal.
In the meantime, the Swedes might have more influence on the euro area's monetary and fiscal arrangements outside the single currency than inside it.
He will urge member states to see the big picture, to see how their budgetary choices affect the fiscal-monetary mix for the euro area as a whole.
It is on the basis of this that Mr Baldwin reaches his best estimate of a 9% increase in trade within the euro area because of monetary union.
ECONOMIST: The supposed benefits of monetary union are cut down to size
Yet Mr Greenspan and Mervyn King, the Bank of England's governor, have it easy compared with Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the ECB, monetary guardian of the euro area.
Despite these drawbacks, some studies have pointed to a substantial increase in trade within the euro area arising from monetary union, for example by 20-25% in the first four years.
ECONOMIST: The supposed benefits of monetary union are cut down to size
But the euro area's monetary policy, if it is to respond quickly to uncertain events while sending clear signals to governments and markets, cannot afford the compromise and inertia of committee politics.
Devising a one-size-fits-all monetary policy for such a diverse area might prove hideously difficult, and European economies are not flexible enough to cope with the potential problems.
Even before the euro was adopted, in 1999, it was clear that neither the EU nor the 12-member subset that has joined the monetary union was an optimal currency area.
The 9th of December I will present to the heads of state and government a roadmap on how to strengthen the economic union of the euro area commensurate with our monetary union.
An optimal currency area would require convergence on monetary, fiscal, exchange rate, and political policies, which in turn would lead to productivity and growth rate convergence, explained Roubini.
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But it does suggest the euro area might need an equivalent of the International Monetary Fund's rescue packages.
The euro area's immediate problem is overly tight monetary and fiscal policies.
The authors noted that for most of last year, money growth in the euro area gave the wrong signal about the appropriate monetary policy.
And Europe's stability and growth pact, so beloved of those who established economic and monetary union, has thrown fiscal policy in the euro area into disarray.
How to co-ordinate a single monetary policy with the 12 separate fiscal policies of the euro area's members?
Monetary policy in America is already tighter than in the euro area.
Another area of potential reform: expanded resources for the International Monetary Fund.
The second obstacle is that monetary policy tends to be a less potent weapon in the euro area than in America or Britain.
"Political uncertainties and fears of another leg of recession in the euro area, due to risks of a breakup of the monetary union, explain the weakness of the auction, " said Ms. Piazza.
U.S. retail sales data, industrial output in China and the euro area, the ongoing Spanish banking crisis and possible further monetary policy easing in Japan will all be overshadowed by the Greek elections, said Nomura Securities analysts in a 16 page report on Friday.
Moreover, the fiscal, monetary and macroeconomic effects will be significant as the Levant Basin, the area of the Leviathan and other fields, emerges as a source of energy exports.
The ECB's wake-up call is likely to come when its statistics department discovers that credit growth in the euro area has contracted for the first time since the formation of the European Monetary Union, says Cailloux.
Mr. Draghi also restated his pledge to preserve the integrity of the currency area, while saying there was no need for the central bank to unwind its accommodative monetary-policy stance.
Europe's single monetary policy has also severed the link between short-term interest rates and economic performance in the euro area, says Mr Artus.
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