David McWilliams: Ditch the Euro

[kerdasi amaq]

I don't see any reason why we would convert our Euro (or our euro deposits) back to punts. We should issue a fixed amount of new currency de novo and let it find its own value against the euro.

[Slippers 2]

-The Euro is not the reason we had a boom and bust. There are approx 11 members (I think) of the Eurozone. How many had property bubbles? 2. 2 of 11. What about the other 9? How come they didn't go daft on low interest rates like we did?
The sooner we realise that it is structural faults that lead us into the bust, structural issues that could have been addressed by fiscal policy, the better.

Waffle... there is no "approx", unless your school of thought and education is at the bar... suppin pints there are 15 members.... facts are alien here...

Christ with observers like this we are screwed

16

[slx]

The Euro is clearly over-valued at the moment as it's doing damage to export industries, tourism and internationally traded services in lots of countries. Ireland isn't the only place with such problems.

We're also not the only country to border a non-Eurozone EU member. E.g. any country, e.g. Germany, with non-Eurozone bordering states has to be suffering enormously as jobs and shoppers slip over the border into the now artificially lower cost neighbours.

Perhaps it's time for those countries that are being really badly affected by this to throw their weight around and threaten to leave. If nothing else, this would cause a devaluation by shaking confidence in the Euro as a reserve currency.

It might also spur the ECB into taking the issue seriously.

The ECB is set-up to control inflation above all else. It seems to me that they will allow the European economy to be driven into the floor in an effort to protect a strong Euro and control inflation.

[McDave]

The Euro is clearly over-valued at the moment as it's doing damage to export industries, tourism and internationally traded services in lots of countries. Ireland isn't the only place with such problems.

We're also not the only country to border a non-Eurozone EU member. E.g. any country, e.g. Germany, with non-Eurozone bordering states has to be suffering enormously as jobs and shoppers slip over the border into the now artificially lower cost neighbours.

Perhaps it's time for those countries that are being really badly affected by this to throw their weight around and threaten to leave. If nothing else, this would cause a devaluation by shaking confidence in the Euro as a reserve currency.

It might also spur the ECB into taking the issue seriously.

The ECB is set-up to control inflation above all else. It seems to me that they will allow the European economy to be driven into the floor in an effort to protect a strong Euro and control inflation.

The Euro was worth $1.18 on its launch. That means it's now about 20% stronger than the launch value. If the dollar is considered to be weak, then such a difference reflects at least in part the strength and stability of the Eurozone. Of course such strength impacts on exports. But it also acts as a constraint on domestic wages and prices.

This is arguably an attractive arrangement, even on a semi-permanent basis. It helps the Eurozone to compete with lower cost producers around the world - a discrepancy which will exist until such time as wages and conditions improve in those lower-cost economies (as indeed happened with South Korea in the late 1980s).

Of course this places an onus on Eurozone economies to exercise discipline. Something we in Ireland would do well to integrate forthwith into our national characteristics.