"The euro was pointless" (all I ever wanted was the coal and steel community)

He takes a couple meanders ("they're all in line for the 400-meter mosey") but gets to a finish line that is simply profound.
From FT Alphaville:

It’s easy to forget now, but the single currency wasn’t created purely as a political project.

Many economists in the 1980s and 1990s thought monetary union would encourage cross-border investment and trade by eliminating the risk premiums associated