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Admittedly, but they all involve very strong internal transfers.
So the Euro could work if pensions, benefits, defense, border controls (yes, the Shengen agreement is a massive subsidy for Germany and other countries in the middle of it) were paid at the federal level. That would not be enough (cultural and linguistic differences would still mean that assymetric shocks would sting harder, so average inflation would have to be higher to help assuage them), but certainly necessary.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu May 29th, 2014 at 06:45:14 AM EST
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border controls (yes, the Shengen agreement is a massive subsidy for Germany and other countries in the middle of it)

Do you mean the cost of implementing and maintaining Schengen border controls? There is EU funding for that.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Thu May 29th, 2014 at 06:54:06 AM EST
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But is there enough funding? For it not to be a subsidy, the external border control should be funded by EU money in its entirety, not just a fraction.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 29th, 2014 at 08:04:12 AM EST
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the border controls, full-paid or not, are one thing, the costs for refugees and illegal immigrants another.
by IM on Thu May 29th, 2014 at 12:43:12 PM EST
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