Introduction -- Traditional narratives, traditional theory -- Critical political economy -- The single market: consolidating neoliberalism -- Origins and development of the EMU: money and finance in the European Union -- The welfare state: whither the 'social dimension'? -- Core and periphery in an enlarged European Union -- The American challenge revisited: the lengthening shadow of US hegemony -- The European Union, the global South, and the emerging powers -- Conclusion: the ordoliberal iron cage