In the wake of the British vote to withdraw from the European Union, additional attention is being paid to the economic disparities among the nations using the euro, and the degree to which the common currency is exacerbating those disparities. But far less attention is paid to regional economic disparities here in the United States, and how our own common currency sometimes makes it difficult to address those disparities.
Having lived for a year in Schenectady, New York, during the 1990s, I saw firsthand the economic struggles that have plagued upstate New York for decades. The economy of New York City's metropolitan area — the nation's largest — seemed to operate in an entirely different world from what was going on upstate.
Because both upstate and the New York City metro area use the same currency (and many of the same economic regulations), upstate businesses cannot be aided by reducing the cost of their products through a currency devaluation and major changes in economic policy.
Now, there are, of course, advantages for upstate New York to use the same currency as New York City, and I'm in no way at all making an argument for an "Upstatexit," but U.S. economists happy to talk about regional disparities in Europe shouldn't forget that such disparities also exist at home.