The euro repeated the ERM’s flawed logic at a larger scale.

Evidence

Well, you can try, and the Europeans building the EU are nothing if not triers. Following the Exchange Rate Mechanism debacle, in a scene reminiscent of one in Monty Python’s movie The Holy Grail in which the king tells his son that “they said you couldn’t build a castle on a swamp, so I did it anyway, and it fell down, so I did it again, and it fell down, so I did it again, and it fell down,” the Europeans decided to go one step further than pegging to the deutsche mark—they would all become German by sharing the same currency and the same monetary policy. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 215

Categorization

• CANDY: The Monty Python swamp-castle analogy is a quotable, funny way to frame the European monetary project’s repeated failure — good elevator-conversation material.
• XREF: connects to: The euro’s uncertain fate makes French monetary tutelage an added risk. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 363

Broader Connections

• The euro’s uncertain fate makes French monetary tutelage an added risk. #qualifies (0.72) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 363