Speaker(s): Philippe Legrain, Professor Helen Thompson, Professor Jonathan White, Waltraud Schelkl | Creating the European monetary union between diverse and unequal nation states is one of the biggest social experiments in history. Waltraud Schelkle's new book, which will form the basis of the discussion at this event, offers an explanation of how the euro experiment came about and was sustained despite a severe crisis, and provides a comparison with the monetary-financial history of the United States. Philippe Legrain (@plegrain) is founder of Think Tank OPEN and Senior Visiting Fellow, European Institute, LSE. Helen Thompson (@HelenHet20) is Professor of Political Economy, University of Cambridge. Jonathan White (@JonathanPJWhite) is Professor of Politics at the LSE European Institute. Waltraud Schelkle is an Associate Professor of Political Economy, European Institute, LSE and author of The Political Economy of Monetary Solidarity. Sara Hobolt (@sarahobolt) is Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the European Institute and the Department of Government, LSE. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.