The Independent, IrelandEurope needs to stop buying time and instead make bank bondholders accept haircuts, believes Colm McCarthyEstonia will become the 17th member of the eurozone on January 1. Only Finland among its Baltic EU neighbours chose to join when the currency was established back in 1999. Watching the plight of Greece, Ireland and Portugal over the last nine months, those EU countries which opted out can be excused for feeling that they made the right choice. The fact that the UK chose to keep its own currency was understood at the time to be a factor which diminished the attractions for Ireland, but the decisions of Denmark and Sweden to stay out were perhaps more instructive. These were small and peripheral countries too, which baulked at the more-or-less irreversible decision to abolish the national currency.
The currency union which Ireland chose to join has turned out to be poorly designed, poorly managed and poorly led. It has become fashionable to argue that monetary union cannot succeed without fiscal union, that is, a common tax and social welfare system requiring budgetary transfers from the richer to the poorer regions.
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Viimased kommentaarid
Kommentaarid on kirjutatud EWR lugejate poolt. Nende sisu ei pruugi ühtida EWR toimetuse seisukohtadega.
Peter30 Dec 2010 06:41
I stand corrected, Lithuania pegged their currency to the US dollar from 1994 to 2002 while Latvia's currency was pegged to the SDR basket which consisted of the dollar, euro, pound and yen.
Toomas Merilo29 Dec 2010 14:51
To: Peter
The Latvian Lats has never been pegged to the US dollar. Up to about the end of 2004, it was pegged to IMF SDR’s (Special Drawing Rights) which represented a composite basket (US, Br. Pounds, Euro, Yen). Since 2005 the Lats is pegged to the Euro.
That Peter is wrong once again does not surprise me. That he publicly wishes to advertise his ignorance, however, does.
Peter29 Dec 2010 05:07
I have heard from some others that adopting the Euro is a bad thing but it is still inevitable. May I ask why? This argument is similar to the one used by the left a few decades a go, that communism, while not perfect, is progress and that like it or not, we are all someday headed in that direction.
The left has found a new cause, the EU, and they have been joined in an unholy alliance by banks and big businesses who see national sovreignty as an inconvenience to doing business.
As far as corruption is concerned, just look at the massive paycheques that Estonian politicians are now drawing from the EU, compared to what they were making before. These people have so much money that they can buy all the gold and real estate they want so they really don't care how long the euro lasts and what the consequences of its demise will be to the Estonian people.
In response to the argument that the kroon is already pegged to the euro, the Estonian government now has the option of pegging their currency to another one (Latvia's currency was pegged to the dollar, not the mark) and in these difficult and unstable times, it would be wise to keep this option open.
The EU has already shown itself as being incompetent when it comes to handling its finances and those countries that have not adopted the euro are saying "I told you so" to the others. Estonia simply does not have the money to bail out the corrupt, money-wasting members of the EU which is bound to happen, making the Estonian people poorer and their leaders more prestigious in the EU. Even Germany is having regrets as most Germans now see the adoption of the euro to have been a mistake and would like to see the return of the mark. And they may get this wish soon.
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