Waiting for Hamilton: the ‘Imbecility’ of the EU

By Alex J. Pollock

Alexander Hamilton asserted 'the imbecility' of the Articles of Confederation government. There are lessons for Europe today.


The budget is the state stripped of ideological pretensions.¹ So when the European Union, a confederation, sets out to control the budgets of its member governments, what is being discussed is not just debt, but the question of who will be sovereign. The fiscal debates are thus a constitutional debate, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Michael Greve has recently discussed, with particular attention to Alexander Hamilton and Federalist No.15.²

“Oh, for an Alexander Hamilton to save Europe!” from its sovereign debt and banking crises, a Financial Times op-ed exclaims; but how does Hamilton’s thought apply to Europe?³

Read more: http://www.american.com/archive/2012/february/waiting-for-hamilton-the-imbecility-of-the-eu