ABSTRACT
Public debt, or more accurately the ratio of public debt to GDP, is the outcome of the crisis that resulted from the combination of the longue duree of uneven capitalist development and financialisation's end, not the reason for the current turmoil in the EU. These developments are, first, deeper transformations of capitalism towards financialisation and rent-seeking activities; and second, the real-estate boom-bust, at different degrees in the four countries, which acted as a bridgehead for the crisis. The third, is the omission of certain spatial, economic and political preconditions for an optimal currency union; fourth, the uneven intra-European terms of trade flows; and fifth, the undemocratic and authoritarian multi-scalar governance of the EU and the Eurozone, which is an elitist top-down project with a lack of mass popular support. These deeper and highly interlinked structural, political and geographical developments did not attract attention and later proved fatal to the project of monetary union itself.
