David Howden on Europe and fiat currency

I speak to the excellent Professor David Howden about the future of the euro, how Cyprus changed everything, and what’s happening in Iceland…

Episode 117: The GoldMoney Foundation’s Andy Duncan talks to David Howden; Chair of the Department of Business and Economics, associate professor of economics at St. Louis University and co-author of Deep Freeze. They discuss the debt crisis in Europe and the race to the bottom between fiat currencies.

Howden thinks that the Euro will hold together in the short term, but he is rather pessimistic on the long term outlook of the common currency. One at a time countries which were formerly regarded as “stable” are being dragged into the debt hole. Though he assesses the problems in the United States to be even greater than Europe’s, he points out that whenever Euro fears start to creep up the US is benefiting due to the depth of its Treasury market.

They go on to talk about the situation in Iceland and Ireland, bank bailouts and the adverse effects of capital controls. With regards to the possibility of a global fiat currency Howden states that such a push would only happen under American involvement which he deems unlikely. Both men express their hopes that the coming currency crisis will make visible the flaws of monopolised money and lead to popular demand for the idea of competing currencies.

This podcast was recorded on 22 March 2013 and previously published at The Euro Vigilante.