Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book discusses Jeffrey Sommer's examination of political economy of austerity in Latvia, Michael Hudson's looks at Latvias much vaunted internal devaluation response to the 2008 crisis, an examination of the deeper structural causes of Baltic economic underdevelopment by Erik Reinert and Rainer Kattel, Charles Woolfson's argues in austerity policies, the key issues explored by Woolfson and Sommers, the future of Europe in the aftermath of the current crisis that are discussed in subsequent chapters of the book. The book also serve as a stark warning that the European Union currently stands at the precipice poised to lose footing and irretrievably fall away from the post-war Social Model that Europe painstakingly built in response to the horrors of the first half of the twentieth century.