"What are these assets that you talk about? The Euro is not backed by Gold or any other physical asset; in fact, it seems to be even more nebulous than the USD."
The Euro is backed by 'high quality' assets such as real estate.
When a bank wants Euros, they put up assets as collateral for it.
In recent years, there has been a lot of debate because of the 'lowering the quality' of such assets, which is kind of a form of QE.
You want the details? Here are the exact details of what you can exchange for credit if you are a bank in the Eurozone:
The Euro is backed by 'high quality' assets such as real estate.
When a bank wants Euros, they put up assets as collateral for it.
In recent years, there has been a lot of debate because of the 'lowering the quality' of such assets, which is kind of a form of QE.
You want the details? Here are the exact details of what you can exchange for credit if you are a bank in the Eurozone:
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/coll/html/index.en.html