Contra Euro 1/N
I have discovered that there are still people who think that adopting the Euro was a good idea, or at least not a bad idea, or at least not a catastrophe.
They seem to have decided that the Greek fiscal tragedy is a minor issue. I will leave it out of the discussion.
My view is that the Euro *and* the Stability and Growth Pact have worked together to endanger the project of European integration. There are strange developments of far right, far left, and weird hair political movements replacing the centrists and social democrats who dominated Europe until it adopted the Euro. They all have something in common — hostility to the European Commission, Eurocrats, and elite technicians (who do not have a clue about technique).
European Populism is powerful because it is a reaction to extreme anti-democratic Eurocrat elitism.
I will try to calm down a bit and write about the huge economic costs of the Euro, the addtional costs of the Growth and Stability Pact, and the huge political costs of arrogant elitism (hence the 1/N)
As a vacationeer from the USA, I love the Euro. It used to be that I lost 10% with every money exchange.
I really don’t care about the other issues.
Not a permanent solution, but a good stop-gap is to kick Germany out of the Euro.
Germany is not a good partner, it is a predatory exporter. China writ small.
I don’t see the reason you should leave Greece out of your discussion of the Euro currency. And there’s about 11 million reasons that it should be included. I know you can make the case that even if we disregard Greece, the Euro is still a bad idea, but the terrible economic stats from Greece are part of the story.
Looks like we agree about the troubling inflexibility of the Growth and Stability Pact. Seems like a currency union independent of a fiscal union really should have been a non-starter.