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Topic: Politics of the Euro

entish
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7235

posted 12 August 2005 07:15 AM

I'm living in the Germany at the moment and really appreciating the ease of the Euro for travel... for example, on my way over I had a stopover in Vienna long enough to go into the city and didn't have to deal with getting different money to be able to do so.

Anyway, in an English class I was teaching a couple days ago we were talking about currency (particularly North American currency, since some of the students want to eventually live there, one of the students asked why we don't have a common currency with the US. Thinking of what a disaster that would be for Canadian sovereignty, I was wondering what political ramifications there have been to the adoption of the Euro over here.

I haven't seen much about it, but I also don't speak enough German to understand much of the local media.

From: Deutschland | Registered: Oct 2004 | IP: Logged

drmfoti
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3394

posted 12 August 2005 08:23 AM

Living in Luxembourg (i.e, no more than 20 minutes from France, Germany or Belgium - it’s a small place), the advantages of the euro are obvious.

There are some complaints at a political level about it (the Lega Nord being the worst example), and a considerable amount of perceived inflation in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in particular, but frankly, it’s damn handy.

But with regard to Canada and the U.S. getting a common currency, I think there is a difference between 11 countries pooling their resources ans a single country cosying up to a country 10 times its size. There is no balance of power there.

From: Luxembourg | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

kuri
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4202

posted 12 August 2005 08:30 AM

I don't have a problem with common currencies so much as depoliticized central banks that aren't accountable to the people. The austerity measures (spending limits) that have gone along with the euro have been somewhat destructive, IMHO, and probably not entirely necessary for the introduction of a common currency. Since both Canada and the US suffer from the same, I'm not actually sure a common currency would make that much of a difference one way or another, but I don't know too much about that either. I'd have to look into the policies of David Dodge and evaluate whether they in fact differ that much from those of Greenspan.

FYI, an older thread on EMU and monetary policy, if you're interested in wading through it

From: an employer more progressive than rabble.ca | Registered: Jun 2003 | IP: Logged

entish
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7235

posted 12 August 2005 09:10 AM

drmfoti, what are you doing in Luxembourg? or is that where you're from? I'm not too far away from you (in Bonn).

For travel, the advantages are definitely obvious, and I'd expect there'd be advantages to being part of a more major currency (since the Euro is so much larger than any one of the currencies it replaced could have been), though I really don't know a lot about the economics of it.

In terms of the countries joining, the major players (such as Germany, France and Italy) are more or less equal politically... anyone know if there are problems from adopting the euro in some of the smaller/less economically powerful countries (like what might happen to Canada if we were to start using the US dollar)?

From: Deutschland | Registered: Oct 2004 | IP: Logged

lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534

posted 12 August 2005 09:42 AM

A babbler meet-up across the pond!

Here is the ECB's own site on the € http://www.euro.ecb.int/en.html

There is a lot of background info on the BBC, and if you are looking for German news in English, Deutsche-Welle has a site in many languages, including English, and Der Spiegel publishes a weekly English section on its website. You can search the dw-world site for info on the Euro.

From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002 | IP: Logged

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