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With the intro­duc­tion of the Euro, the Euro­pean Mon­e­tary Union will begin the inte­gra­tion of all Euro­pean coun­tries into a sin­gle cur­rency sys­tem for the first time since the Roman Empire. This pro­gram explores some of the polit­i­cal and eco­nomic aspects of the intro­duc­tion of the Euro and the estab­lish­ment of the EU. The con­flict between the need to invest in job cre­ation and the tough fis­cal stan­dards required to qual­ify for EU mem­ber­ship is likely to lead to ten­sions between mem­ber nations, as well as inter­nal social dis­tress within them. In addi­tion, the intro­duc­tion of the Euro may very well exac­er­bate ten­sions between the EU and the United States. The pro­gram explores, among other top­ics: the fudg­ing of stan­dards for mem­ber­ship by many key EU par­tic­i­pants; EU pro­vi­sions to imple­ment tough emer­gency mea­sures to ensure the free flow of goods dur­ing times of social unrest within mem­ber nations; the impact the Euro’s dis­place­ment of the D-Mark will have on the rise of fas­cism in Ger­many; the impact of high unem­ploy­ment on the rise of fas­cism through­out Europe and the pos­si­ble dev­as­tat­ing effect of the Euro on the U.S. econ­omy. See also a 30-minute seg­ment enti­tled The Com­ing of the Euro­pean Mon­e­tary Union, avail­able from Spit­fire. (Recorded in June of 1998.)