[Editor's note: Two interviews from August 1992, given by Murray Rothbard to the Swedish student publication Svensk Linje (continuously published since 1942) were recently discovered in the Rothbard Archives and translated by Sven Thommesen for the first time. In this interview, Anton Wahlman, an economist from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, interviewed Rothbard about Sweden and European integration with the rise of the ECU (euro). The interview took place in August 1992.

For readers: EMS = the European Monetary System and ECU = the European Currency Unit = the euro]

An alternative to the EMS and the ECU

Anton Wahlman: You are known all over the world as one of the most forceful defenders of free markets. Should Sweden wish to throw off the burden of social democracy, is the European Currency Unit (ECU, euro) and the European Monetary System (EMS) the only direction to go?

Murray Rothbard: No, no! Quite the opposite! The goal for all the (mostly socialist) technocrats and bureaucrats who roost and breed in Brussels is NOT to get rid of customs duties and quotas against the rest of the world, but to "equalize" (level) them; NOT to radically lower taxes, but to increase them; NOT to eliminate the welfare state, but to spread it to all countries. In short: the European Union (EU) is a nightmare for those who would like to see a free market economy in Sweden in the future!