afew:

I don't think people like Jacques Delors were motivated by neoliberal conspiracies to force competition and "reform" on nation states (which is not to deny the existence of would-be such conspirators, or that economic liberals were not in favour of the single currency).

Which reminds me of the Shock Doctrine and how the economic structure of South Africa after apartheid was written by a select few while the great number of people (including most of ANCs leadership) were busy with what seamed as the great questions of democracy.

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I don't think people like Jacques Delors were motivated by neoliberal conspiracies to force competition and "reform" on nation states (which is not to deny the existence of would-be such conspirators, or that economic liberals were not in favour of the single currency).

It's not a conspiracy, it's a Zeitgeist.

And I'm far from agreeing with you that "its implementation was left to a nomenklatura of Wall St-inspired rapists and headbangers". That description doesn't correspond to what I see of delusory French and pig-headed German elites, in 1992 or now.

Let's see who has been in charge:

• 1993-1994 Delors III
  
• 1995-1999 Santer Commission
  
• 1999-2004 Prodi
  
• 2004-2009 Barroso I
  
• 2009-2014 Barroso II

The problem reall has been that in 2009, with the crisis already under way, Merkel decided a puppet at the Commission was a good thing. Things started to go pear-shaped at the turn of 2010 with the mishandling of the Greek crisis.

As for "the concept of a single currency", the fact is more that the area concerned didn't (doesn't) correspond to requirements, and it's rather difficult to conceive of a large area that does, absent a couple of centuries and a civil war to settle things down.

Forget about Mundell-Fleming "optimal currency areas". What you need is 10% of GDP in a federal budget, and commensurate fiscal transfers (say, a 10x expansion of cohesion funds). A country such as Germany with a current account surplus of 7% should be transferring 4% of its GDP.

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

Have you actually read the economic conditions set out in Maastricht?

The social chapter, such as it is, seems to have been added as a CYA afterthought, and has played a relatively minor role in policy since 1992.

As for Delors - surely one of the earliest faux-Socialists who was more interested in financialisation than in political and social progress?