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Reply With QuoteI would like the Euro to be legal tender over here for all purchases greater than €10.
It'd make life easier for tourists, and for cross-border commerce. Those stuck on their pound sterling could keep the queen clutched close to their chests.
Do you think UK and its territories should join the EURO ?
Give a reason why please. I was thinking how much easier it would be, for anyone travelling of course, but also for business. "Easier" does not even imply "better" of course, and I'm not an economist, but is there anything so different between our situation and the economic situation of the other countries who HAVE joined that would make it a big mistake? Would our houses crash in value or would milk go up by 2p (relatively speaking) ? Any money muppets wish to comment?
It would also be nice to have the same set of notes that everyone can use and that get accepted everywhere - something we do not have even in the individual countries that make up UK; I've had sterling notes rejected numerous times in England. Im sure our N.I. friends dont even try to bring over their sterling notes for dance events.
I would like the Euro to be legal tender over here for all purchases greater than €10.
It'd make life easier for tourists, and for cross-border commerce. Those stuck on their pound sterling could keep the queen clutched close to their chests.
Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story
I am soooo getting new business cards printed.Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe
Much of BIG business would rather we adopted the $$$$$.
*sweeping generalisation* ~all~ the companies that "matter" in the world consolidate in USD, most trade with each other all over the world in USD and FX on the P&L or BS (depending on your GAAP) is a royal pain in the bahookey. So if you were counting opinion by value of transactions represented then most money muppets would say Euro would just be the same problem but with a different sign. I have a shiny new laptop and it doesn't have a Euro key. QED.
fix the Euro against the $ and you help a bit but I still don't have the key, although I suspect if I hit a particular 17 different keys at the same time there's one hiding there somewhere.
No - I don't trust surrender of interest-rate control to a too-broad authority, they won't always make decisions that are in our national interest.
Yes - the Euro area has stagnated in the past few years - high unemployment, low growth - whereas the UK economy hasn't. The Euro is still a pretty weak currency, in other words.I was thinking how much easier it would be, for anyone travelling of course, but also for business. "Easier" does not even imply "better" of course, and I'm not an economist
Europe does a lot of things really really well - but at the moment, staying outside is helping us more than hurting. We can join at any time over the next 10-20 years without any pain, and looking at the relative demographic / economic trends, the UK has a reasonable shot of being Europe's largest economy in 20-odd years, so it's not like in the 70s when we were the poor man of Europe.
Having said that, I'd like to see more shops accept Euros as legal tender, it's annoying having notes / coins you can't spend. Maybe the UK government could subsidize the exchange or something, paying the commission? Probably unrealistic politically, but it'd remove the "loose change" argument.
I think we should have joined the Euro, but they screwed up the introduction process and now there are no compelling reasons to join. At the moment.
Admittedly, having a "strong" currency is probably better than having a "weak" one, but it's not necessarily all beneficial. See a Guardian article this week on how having an "overly-strong" pound has in fact damaged the British economy by making industry less competitve:
http://business.guardian.co.uk/econo...891943,00.html
Actually, you could argue that it makes industry more competitive - in that industry has to cut prices to compete. But that only applies to "the industry that doesn't go under because of the price pressure", of course. But the Grauniad would never make that kind of argument.
Surely the strength of a country's currency is simply a reflection of the confidence people have in that country's economy? If so, this quote from the article is weird:
That seems as dumb as saying "house prices are over-valued" - i.e. ignoring the clear message from the market that X is the value, as it's what people are prepared to pay. In fact, that's the definition of value.
If you think something is over-valued, then you may be right - and make a killing selling that thing short. But it's more likely IMO that your model doesn't match the facts.
Given the economic stat of the EU compared to that of England perhaps the rest of Europe should join the GBP?
why just specifically England ? and would you want the EU memebrs dragging down the GBP ?
A couple of ideas to throw into the melting pot.
Knowning what they do now, do formites think that West Germany would still unife with East germany?
Apart from location (and we have a huge piece of water between us), what do we actually have in common with France, Germany Italy, Spain and the rest of europe? Language? Religion? Culture?
For me the European community is a great idea, driven by the politicans, but 50 years too early.
Absolutely. It's costing more (in several ways), and it's taking longer, but... The Berlin Wall going down, that was such an iconic moment. We forget what it was like in the Cold War, the constant fear, the mutual antagonism - makes the whole War On Terror thing look like a picnic in comparison. These are better days, and the unification of Germany showed the way to the entirety of Eastern Europe.
Errrr... Yes (Latin), Yes (Christianity), and yes (renaissance, democracy, all that stuff...)
The following is part of a paper I co-wrote for a major UK bank on the practicality of joining the Euro, Although it was written near the turn of the century (end of 2000) I believe it is more true than ever. I have re-edited it to make it slightly more readable and changed the intro, and the summary to what I believe is the real key resistance.
So what is so wrong with the UK joining the Euro, why are so many so against it. Can you remember the “five criteria for membership” our soon to be new, new labour PM set out when he was just a humble chancellor. It seems since those heady days of new labours second term we’ve adopted a rather sanguine attitude to becoming a fully invested partner in Europe.
It is my view that the “five criteria for membership” were really just a stall tactic all along. Certainly given that economic convergence has continued without much a to do, so what’s the problem.
Well, although I am sure our European neighbours would welcome us warmly, there would have to be limits to any special conditions allowable for the UK. Any flexibility will be seen as a precedent for all central and eastern European countries waiting to join.
The UK meets with ease most of the “five criteria for membership” – for debt, long term Interest rates, deficits and inflation. Two we don’t: the need for a two year period of exchange rate stability and the full independence of the B of E. The requirement for a fully independent B of E is the particularly sensitive one.
The real key criteria to a successful transition has to be the credibility of the exchange rate and the date of entry to the ERM. If you look at the figures from the B of E you will see that business cycles are continuing to converge and that there is nothing to show that UK’s financial or economic structure would make joining the Euro a problem.
In fact, the evidence as it stands suggests that the UK is very close to the other European economies in relation to changes in interest rates, despite the high level of mortgage debt (linked to variable interest rates) we have in this country.
In addition, the flexibility in both the UK and Europe as a whole has increased. While it Remains safe to say that investment in Europe would benefit from UK membership It should be said that the City would also enjoy greater opportunities if the UK joined. Also evidence suggests that the effect of Euro membership would encourage UK prosperity.
Therefore, from an economic perspective there is very little evidence to suggest that joining the Euro (if the exchange rate we go in at is given due consideration) would be bad for the UK. So it would suggest the main resistance still remains that of the Xenophobic English themselves.
Last edited by mikeyr; 12th-October-2006 at 04:24 PM. Reason: Of course I could have just said straight off, but you wouldnt listen.
[QUOTE=mikeyr;291339]So it would suggest the main resistance still remains that of the Xenophobic English themselves.[/QUOTE
I'm anti-Euro and anti-European unification.
That's my xenophobic English side talking... and the French, the Belgian and the Sicilian sides too.
Vive la difference.
Bugggered up that quote somehow...
Good thing you mis-spelt the B-word too, or we'd be upstairsBugggered up that quote somehow...
I think it'd be extremely difficult to prove that either the UK has done badly, or that Europe has done well, out of the introduction of the Euro. Given the relative economic performances of the UK and the Eurozone, despite the increased growth in trade between Eurozone members, the default assumption would be that it's had little or no impact.
One of the problems is that labour mobility in most of Europe is low - generally, you don't leave your country if it's doing badly economically. Unlike the US, where labour mobility is much higher. So in Europe you're much more exposed to local problems caused by a global financial policy - look at the inflation problems in Ireland for a good example of this.
Generally, I think it's possible to make a case for joining the Euro, but I certainly don't believe it's clear-cut.
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