I've noticed that conservative analyses of why the EU failed invariably focus upon regulation, but miss the trade imbalances. For example take the British Conservative Party's Daniel Hannan's eloquent and humorous oration at the Oxford Union in favor of Brexit:
Daniel Hannan is correct that the European Union has been an economic disaster. He cites some good statistics to prove his point. But like many other conservatives, he only attributed that disaster to one of its causes: the regulations of the European Commission. He missed the other major cause: the trade imbalances.
Eventually, every trading system which sustains imbalanced trade eventually slows economic growth. That’s because the trade deficit counties have to borrow from the trade surplus countries in order to buy imports. And because they have trade deficits, they lose their industries. Eventually, the trade deficit countries become credit risks (e.g., Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Italy). They can no longer borrow to buy imports. Then the banks in the trade surplus countries that loaned them the money to do so have to deal with bad loans. (Deutsche Bank just flunked the Federal Reserve’s “stress test.”) Economic growth within the trading system slows.
As Hannan noted, now that Britain is out of the EU, it can negotiate its own trade agreements. Trump’s statement about Brexit invited a trade agreement between Britain and the United States. In contrast, Obama stated, before the Brexit vote, that he would not negotiate any trade agreement with an independent Britain; instead he would put Britain in the “back of the queue.”
Trade deficit countries (such as U.S. and Britain) should trade more with each other. Both would benefit.
[An] extensive argument for balanced trade, and a program to achieve balanced trade is presented in Trading Away Our Future, by Raymond Richman, Howard Richman and Jesse Richman. “A minimum standard for ensuring that trade does benefit all is that trade should be relatively in balance.” [Balanced Trade entry]
Journal of Economic Literature:
[Trading Away Our Future] Examines the costs and benefits of U.S. trade and tax policies. Discusses why trade deficits matter; root of the trade deficit; the “ostrich” and “eagles” attitudes; how to balance trade; taxation of capital gains; the real estate tax; the corporate income tax; solving the low savings problem; how to protect one’s assets; and a program for a strong America....
Atlantic Economic Journal:
In Trading Away Our Future Richman ... advocates the immediate adoption of a set of public policy proposal designed to reduce the trade deficit and increase domestic savings.... the set of public policy proposals is a wake-up call... [February 17, 2009 review by T.H. Cate]