Karl Whelan is brilliant as ever.
http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/WP13_09.pdf
Unfortunately, the introduction of new monetary arrangements did not turn out to be sufficient to eliminate the consequences of the economic differences across the participating member states. Indeed, the concern about asymmetric shocks that was widely discussed in the pre‐EMU academic debates failed to anticipate two huge asymmetric shocks that would hit the euro area: The near‐ harmonisation of sovereign and private borrowing rates during the early years of the euro and the subsequent reversal of this pattern. The asymmetric shocks that critics predicted would afflict the euro have occurred in a deadlier form than most people anticipated.
