Institutions in crisis : European perspectives on the recession 1. Institutional illusion and financial entrepreneurship in the European debt scheme Gabriel A. Giménez Roche 2. A stock taking of the impact of the crisis Jörg Guido Hülsmann 3. The Irish economic miracle : Celtic tiger or Bengal kitten Anthony J. Evans 4. Europes unemployment crisis : some hidden relief David Howden 5. Europes crisis of accounting Maria Alvarado Laura Muro and Kirk Lee Tennant 6. Solvency II and the European sovereign debt crisis : the case of misplaced prudence Antonio Zanella 7. The Eurosystem : costs and tragedies Philipp Bagus 8. Fiscal stimulus financial ruin Fernando Ulrich 9. From German rules to European discretion : policys slippery slope Malte Tobias Kähler 10. The Euro as a hindrance to recovery : a comparative analysis of the Czech Republic and Slovakia Jiří Schwarz and Josef Šima 11. Compounding agricultural poverty : how the EUs Common Agricultural Policy is strangling European recovery Brian Ó Caithnia This critical and thought provoking book explores the causes and consequences of Europes failed political and economic institutions. Europes recession has created new challenges as market turmoil has shaken the foundations of the twin pillars of the new drive for European integration political and monetary unions. This book critically assesses the patchwork solutions continually offered to hold the troubled unions together. Failed political policies from the prodigious Common Agricultural Policy to ever more common fiscal stimulus packages are shown to have bred less than stellar results in the past and to have devastating implications for future European growth. The contributors outline the manner through which European monetary union has subsidized and continues to exacerbate the burgeoning debt crisis. Most strikingly the interplay between Europes political and economic realms is exposed as the boondoggle it is with increasingly bureaucratic institutions plaguing the continent and endangering future potential