As Europe's economic debacle gathers apace, there's no shortage of commentators saying "I told you so." The impact of factors such as out-of-control welfare states, excessive debt, widespread bureaucratization, a flawed monetary experiment, low-productivity, and labor market rigidities seems obvious to us today. The truth, however, is that few observers -- European or American -- forecast that the European unification project would eventually produce a fiasco on this scale. Indeed, most early opponents of European political and economic integration were old-fashioned lefties who feared it might impede implementation of socialist policies! A rare exception to this rule was the German economist Wilhelm Röpke.
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