Do you think UK should join the Euro?

[Martin]

All this is been going on for ages, and what do you think on this matter?

Personally i think we shouldn't coz of the threat of inflation etc (i do economics )

but i want to know your views not mine

Cheers

Martin

[DaBeeeenster]

Yes we should. For many reasons. Primarily I think we should join the Euro for sociological reasons. I think the compleltely free (in the true sense of the word, not in the WTO or American sense of the word) trade that has been constructed within Europe over the last decade, culminating in the adoption of the Euro by most of the member states is something that we should all be proud of.

I think the fact that you can now walk across Europe without a passport and with one set of bank notes in your wallet is, based on the situation Europe found itself in 60 years ago, nothing short of astonishing.

I would call that progress. These are more romantic arguments than anything else, but I dont think that detracts from the weight of the points.

I think there are economic arguments agains the Euro, although I am not sure that inflation is one of them.

[spikegifted]

Inflation is certainly not one of the economic problems but deflation is definitely one of them - since the brief of the ECB is to keep inflation low rather than promote growth.

I'm just curious what kind of socialogical reasons is there to join the Euro. I don't see the British suddenly going appreciate European culture, lifestyle, language, politics, etc, anymore than they do now.

[Joel]

nope, so far the euro has been a flop, and the pound is one of the main business coinage next to the us $

i do think a united europe is good, but i dont like the idea of some bloke in brussels controllin our army/taxes etc, because whts good for them, might not be good for us..

[Anders]

No, because one interest rate doesn’t suit all of Europe, we all have such widely different economies that it could a very long time before one rate will be suitable for everyone.

In the long run it’s a step towards a United States of Europe, which I’m against because the E.U. isn’t currently very democratic or answerable to the people. They also seem to come out with a lot of hair-brained schemes, although I will concede they do a lot of good as well, e.g. Human Right Charter. If things were a little more sensible and more democratic then I probably wouldn’t be so against a US of Europe and therefore joining the Euro.

[daveham]

I think it is more likely that Lionel will adopt the US dollar...

[spikegifted]

Originally posted by daveham
I think it is more likely that Lionel will adopt the US dollar...

Errr... Who's Lionel?

Back to the topic... From a purely economic point of view, adoptation of the US dollar may make more sense than than of the Euro, because for one reason or another, the UK economy exhibits more correlation with the US than to the Eurozone. However, in adopting the US$, the US faces many of the same challenges outline in the Chancellor's 5 economic tests for adopting the Euro.

[Nick2k]

well, came back from holiday (italy) and i have to say OMFG..so expensive..big difference

[Big RICHARD]

Originally posted by joel112
nope, so far the euro has been a flop, and the pound is one of the main business coinage next to the us $

i do think a united europe is good, but i dont like the idea of some bloke in brussels controllin our army/taxes etc, because whts good for them, might not be good for us..

But you don't mind some bloke in London controlling our army/taxes etc, because what's good for them, might not be good for us..?????

It doesn't matter which bunch of idiots runs us, we are still expected to go to work and pay taxes and eat food etc etc etc.


The USA has shown that power in numbers works if it is set up properly and one thing they have is local governments running their state. The UK government would deal with the state of UK, the Belgian government (as it is now) would run the state of Belgium. This would pave the way for a Federal Government of the United States of Europe.

[daveham]

Lionel Blair

[Grouch]

I'm caught in two minds to be honest.

In general i am very pro europe. I lived in Germany for a year and was there when the euro was introduced. To me money is simply something i swap with other people for services or products. At one point i had used Pounds, Deutschmarks and Euros in the space of two weeks. It made no difference to me. Took a little while to get my head round but that was it.

However i do admit that i have no real idea about what the real economic effect of joining the euro would be.

[spikegifted]

The unit of currency will not determine the 'sovereignty' of a nation. On the other hand, the ability to set long-term economic policy is seen as a 'sovereignty' issue. Therefore, adoption of the Euro as the currency for the UK simply as a method of exchanging goods is not a problem. One of the arguments for the anti-Euro camp is that it is a problem when acquiring the Euro as the currency because it means giving up our own ability to set out long-term interest rate guidelines to the Bank of England.

The above argument is not of economics but of politics. The reason is that once the UK is part of the Eurozone, the ECB's interest rate decision will have to factor in the economic conditions of all member countries and as the UK is one of the larger economies in Europe, our condition will have a large effect on the overall picture. Furthermore, since nearly all economists and politicians agree that high inflation is not good and deflation is not either, there leaves a narrow range in which inflation can fluctuate, which in turn means that the long-term economic goal of the ECB is the same as that of the UK government and the Bank of England.

Personally, I think the ECB has been doing a good job in reference to its brief - keeping inflation low. However, this brief does not emphasize growth. So in times when economic activities are low but still with latent inflationary pressure in the economies, the ECB cannot deliver the lower interest rates necessary to simulate growth. This is one area which the ECB functions in the sharpest contrast to the FOMC (the US Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed, which sets interest rates).

[Anders]

With one E.U. interest rate a problem occurs when some countries have inflationary pressures (growth) in their economies, like Ireland had, while other countries have deflationary (declining) pressures, like Germany and France. Economies with inflation need higher interest rates to avoid a huge boom and thus eventually a big bust. Declining economies need lower interest rates to stimulate growth.

The UK currently has quite good growth and low unemployment, while the countries currently in the Euro zone have low growth and high unemployment. So currently there seems little logic in joining a group needing low interest rate when we need higher interest rates. Until our economies come into the same cycle it seems foolish to join.

On the wider issue ever having a US of Europe, I think that the real obstacle is not politics or economics, but of a cultural one, namely language. We all speak different languages, which prevents people from communicating thus (wrongly) creating mistrust. I think we will always see people who only speak a different language from us as foreign in some way or another unfortunately. I can’t really imagine many of us voting for a French speaker or the French voting for an English speaker as our “President”.

[spikegifted]

I like your point about culture and language. Even though a proportion of people in Europe speak English, due to their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, they have different emphasis. Even fluent English speakers will sometimes use words that are different from those of the native speakers (Brits and Irish) and different cultures will use slightly different words to express similar ideas... This also go hand in hand with interpretation of the language used. I can see that a single sentense read by a couple of dozen people of different nationalities, there'll be as many different interpretation of it...

Oops...

[sexeh]

not at all. it's a rip off. we should keep control and not follow suit.

[Blub2k]

Only if they behave themselves which unfortunately the Brits are not too good at, I think that after Blairs recent antics that the UK should actually be thrown out of the EU.