EP347 · Economy · first published 2025-08-20
Euro, ECU2 and Hamilton | Sami Miettinen | Negotiator 347
A solo episode, made at the Sisäpiiri audience's request that Sami work through a theory without a guest to argue with. He reflects on monetary systems, the euro and the EU by way of the Hamilton musical in London. At its centre is the ECU-2 proposal from Libera's 2014 book: twelve countries entered the euro by tying their currencies to the ECU basket first, and ECU-2 runs that backwards. A floating currency is counter-cyclical and the euro pro-cyclical — Sweden and Poland took the winning position. The Hamilton half is about what a federation actually requires: a one-off assumption of state debts and a tariff-funded tax base, neither of which the EU has.
Euro, ECU2 and Hamilton | Sami Miettinen | Negotiator 347
Summary: A solo episode, made at the Sisäpiiri audience’s request that Sami work through a theory without a guest to argue with. He reflects on monetary systems, the euro and the EU by way of the Hamilton musical in London. At its centre is the ECU-2 proposal from Libera’s 2014 book: twelve countries entered the euro by tying their currencies to the ECU basket first, and ECU-2 runs that backwards. A floating currency is counter-cyclical and the euro pro-cyclical — Sweden and Poland took the winning position. The Hamilton half is about what a federation actually requires: a one-off assumption of state debts and a tariff-funded tax base, neither of which the EU has.
Key Themes
- Euro, ECU2 and Alexander Hamilton: Discussed from 00:00 onward.
- The Hamilton musical and the founders’ judgement: Discussed from 00:49 onward.
- Hamilton as a federalist: a strong dollar and the foundations of the Fed: Discussed from 01:11 onward.
- Finland in the euro against Sweden’s and Poland’s floating currencies: Discussed from 02:47 onward.
- The Covid support package and Finland’s negative net position: Discussed from 03:23 onward.
- Alternatives for Finland’s euro strategy, and the ECU-2 model: Discussed from 04:08 onward.
- ECU-2 against the original ECU; national currencies in parallel: Discussed from 05:07 onward.
- Lex monetae and whether an EU member may have its own currency: Discussed from 06:07 onward.
- Net wealth compared: Finland, Sweden, the US and Switzerland: Discussed from 06:35 onward.
- Floating currencies as counter-cyclical, the euro as pro-cyclical: Discussed from 07:48 onward.
- The IMF’s SDR and where ECU-2 resembles it: Discussed from 09:18 onward.
- Hamilton’s federal model: assuming state debts, and a strong dollar: Discussed from 10:29 onward.
- EU debt and the limits of Finland’s tax base: Discussed from 11:17 onward.
- Trump’s tariffs, and Hamilton’s tariffs as a federal tax base: Discussed from 11:54 onward.
- The EU’s carbon and digital taxes against a small budget: Discussed from 13:00 onward.
- The scale of the EU budget next to the United States: Discussed from 13:53 onward.
- Hamilton’s solutions against the EU, and the zero-sum framing: Discussed from 14:55 onward.
- Finnish borrowing and the fiscal policy law being reformed: Discussed from 15:27 onward.
- Nordic debt levels compared, and where Finland is heading: Discussed from 16:00 onward.
- What to take up next: Discussed from 16:37 onward.