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Banking on Sterling: Britain's Independence from the Euro Zone
Author(s): Ophelia Eglene (Author)
- Publisher: Lexington Books
- Publication Date: 16 Dec. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 167 pages
- ISBN-10: 0739144103
- ISBN-13: 9780739144107
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
In Banking on Sterling, Ophelia Eglene analyzes the political economy of British government policy toward the European Monetary System and the euro zone. She traces the trajectory of British policy from 1990 through 2007, demonstrating the impact of industrial and financial interests, as well as public opinion. Eglene grounds her analysis carefully in existing theoretical approaches, and brings to bear important evidence drawn both from the historical record and from original interviews with many of the principals. Banking on Sterling is particularly effective in demonstrating how the political economy of British policy changed over time as circumstances evolved. This book is a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the politics and economics of the euro, and of the European Union more broadly. It will also be read with great profit by anyone interested in the political economy of currency policy, and of foreign economic policy in general. — Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University
Eglene, a political scientist, follows [the United Kingdom’s currency] events since 1990 and focuses on the United Kingdom’s deliberations on joining the euro―that is, abolishing sterling altogether. She concludes that both the views of the United Kingdom’s financial sector and official anxiety about it, rather than ideology or public opinion, played the decisive role in the country’s procrastination with respect to joining the eurozone. ―
Foreign AffairsAbout the Author
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