Euro: the world currency

[Jordi]

The euro will become the official currency at the stroke of the new year in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

With three of the world's six richest countries and four of the richest 10 using the new currency, the euro is certain to become a key factor in global financial affairs. "It will be the second-most-important currency on Earth, right from the start," said Richard Portes, an international economist at the London Business School. "If Britain and other countries adopt it, it could be a challenger to the primacy of the [U.S.] dollar -- not in two years, but in 12, or 20 or so."

Britain, Denmark and Sweden are expected to hold referendums on using the euro within the next two years.

The creep of the new currency into border areas seems likely to make it more familiar to people in the holdout countries

[Moonman62]

Again, move to the Euro,if you want a safe currency

Dollar Keeps Yen, Euro on the Defensive

It's too bad that the good people of Ireland are going to let themselves be dragged down by the communists on the continent.

[Moonman62]

The euro will never have the penetration the Dollar has. Why?

Seventy percent of the world's commodities must be paid for in dollars. Not gold, not euros, dollars.

[Jordi]

It's very interesting to read your comments.

But you missed some points: even if the EU is neither a single country nor an agglomerate of separate,independent countries. It'a federation work-in-progress.

An average European has an average income that is 20% lower than an American (my source are purchase power parity pro-capita GDP from the IMF).

But he has more assets, less debts. The Saving/income ratio in the Eurozone is about 10%, while in America it is about 1%.

Let's consider the growth. In the last eight quarters the US experienced an average annualized Growth of 1.7% , the Eurozone 1.6% (my source is still the IMF). But the US population increases about 1% a year, the population of the EU is stable. The EU is actually experiencing a slowdown, the US a recession. Everybody can defend his own opinion, but at the end facts matter. Actually nobody wants a strong Euro here,if it means importing the US recession.

[WriteOn]

Do Europeans really want to relinquish their sovereignty?

[WriteOn]

Ignorant. No one snorts cocaine with a measly dollar.

[LarryLied]

I doubt the overseas holders of billions of dollars in US cash are going to convert to a Euro which has a computer chip implanted in it. They might as well give it to the tax collector.

[Lazamataz]

Again, move to the Euro,if you want a safe currency

As opposed to the dollar, which has proven its unpopularity and weakness over the ages?

LOL!

[Jordi]

In the 19th century the UK sterling pound was the world currency.

In the 20th it was the US dollar

In the 21st it will be the Euro

(But it is even possible that it will be the Chinese yuan renmibi)

Macroeconomic data say that, apart from political ideology.

[Gemflint]

Oh certainly, Jordi! Will do that right away...

Considering that the E.U. has banned freedom of speech (You know, it's now illegal to criticize the E.U.), putting chips into their money, and the Gestapo-like trial laws, I'm sure that the Euro AND the E.U. will have EVERYONE'S TRUST. Yeah, right... /sarcasm

Businesses like to deal where there is a free market and where freedom is not crushed underfoot. The E.U. certainly doesn't have that, now do they?

[July 4th]

But the US population increases about 1% a year, the population of the EU is stable.

I don't really see how that's much of a benefit. Population growth is normally accompanied by increased production of wealth. Just check out the figures from 1890-1920, when the U.S. economy absorbed millions of immigrants and outpaced the world in virtually every aspect of growth.

As for a stable population in Europe, that's not exactly true. In some nations, there's actually a negative rate, which doesn't do much for an economy except begin a concentration of wealth.

The EU is actually experiencing a slowdown, the US a recession.

True, but the latest numbers also show that we could be out of the recession by the second quarter of next year, while Europe is still on the way down. As for our "recession" - if we had the unemployment numbers of the EU member states, we'd be calling it a national disaster.

[VOA]

Euro: the world currency

No mention of the nickel allergy potential of the Euro coin.
An article about a month ago said the nimrods in charge of the Euro failed to
notice that they were launching a coin that might give allergic reactions to approx.
5 percent of men and 15 percent of women that have lots of contact with the coin (and
it's nickel content).

I guess increasing sales of gloves for cashiers and the like is one way to stimulate
the economy with the introduction of the Euro!

[Jordi]

I'm already handlig such coins and i don't feel any disturb. They are nice LoL

[Clemenza]

Is this Jordi Pujol, former official in the Spanish government and head of the CIU?

[Teacher317]

In fact the US dollar is the most counterfeited currency of the world.

Does that tell you anything? Given a choice, they still go after a very difficult bill to fake, because it is the most valuable, the most preferred, and most useful currency.

[Jordi]

You know, the world population will peak at around 8 to ten billions.

And it's also necessary not to kill the enviroment where we live in.

So the disposable workforce will not increase forever.

Now it's necessary to build an economy that grows without the increase of workforce.

The EU economy grows keeping roughly the same numbers of workers.

Or does the US want to suck people from all around the world?? That's terrifying...

[VOA]

I'm already handlig such coins and i don't feel any disturb. They are nice LoL

Guess you lucked out and are in the population without the sensitivity.
I'm not a dermatologist, but I wonder if the allergy is something of a delayed reaction...
i.e., you might handle them for weeks or months, then break out in a constant rash.

Actually, I think nickel allergies was already well know in the coin world (maybe a problem
with earlier versions of the US 5 cent piece)...so it's just a little suprising
that the Euro coin makers would make a coin with this down-side feature.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

You also have to remember that some of those euro nations also are pretty much a third world nation with a few good cities and nothing else. France is degenerating into a social mess with their gettos sprining up on the outside of paris. The Greeks have one nice city and the rest of the nation has no economic development. Germany the so called most powerful economic power has east german cities with 17 and 25% unemployment rates.

Everyone talks about racial problems in the united states yet when was the lastime we lived with race riots every month? The U.K. has bigger race problems then L.A. after the cops got off beating rodney king.

[Jordi]

Thanks for your intelligent comment.I add some.

Most young people in Europe speak English and are graduated or going to get a degree.

There isn't a real tech advantage of North America. Have you an idea of many cell-phones are there in Europe? It's only an example. The manufacturing sector is implementing relentless a more extreme automatization and integration,pushed by the shortage of disposable workforce (caused also by the ones who aren't going to work).

The problem of Europe is an over regulated labor market. But in countries like Ireland and the Netherlands this problem has already been solved. Cutting such red tape will boost the growth.

Governments finances are healtier like never before,apart the temporary consequences of the slowdown, and there's room for fiscal reforms.

A large social security system avoid the spread of povery,social inequalities, disease.

Europe is going to face its resposibilities on the world stage,in any sense.

[henbane]

The only people who will be adopting the euro in full force are the criminals, who will find the 500 euro note a remarkably easy way to move and launder money.

---

Crime without frontiers

Crime without frontiers
Euro cops will pool information on criminals

The launch of the euro opens up a world of opportunities - not only for companies and consumers, but for criminals as well.

The euro is the currency of an area with more people, a bigger economy and a larger share of world trade than the United States.

It has every chance of becoming a leading world currency, to stand alongside the dollar.

But it is also in danger of becoming crime's top currency.

Paradise for dirty money

Money laundering is one of the biggest potential threats posed by the euro.

Jeffrey Robinson, the author of The Laundrymen, a book on international money laundering, believes criminals will be rubbing their hands with glee.

He said: "A borderless Europe with a single currency is a drug trafficker's and a money launderer's dream.

The drugs barons will take advantage of the euro to get rid of dirty money

"If they could have waved a magic wand to create a perfect world where they could move drugs from one country to another and get rid of dirty money with ease - this would have been it.

"The cops I have spoken to about this basically shake their heads in despair."

One problem is the high value of the euro notes. Germany wanted to keep high denominations, as the country is used to handle bank notes worth 500 and even 1,000 Deutschmarks ($300 and $600 respectively).

"For a start, the eurozone countries should not have agreed to produce a 500 euro note", said Jeffrey Robinson. 500 euros are worth about $590.

"It just makes it easier for drug barons and money launderers to move around.

"One million pounds would fill up several attache cases but you could easily cram one million pounds worth of euros into one."

Mr Robinson also believes that the euro will make it easier to hide dirty money.

He said: "At the moment if you are selling Moroccan hashish in Spain - you will be paid in pesetas.

"You'll want to get rid of that currency pretty quick to distance yourself from the drugs, by maybe changing it into Deutschmarks before changing it into dollars."

When such large amounts of cash turn up at banks, the policy could begin asking questions

"But once the euro is introduced you'll have a currency that could have come from any European country. It just makes it easier for the criminal."

Counterfeiting risk

The prospect of another type of euro-related crime hit the headlines recently when a security hologram for the new euro banknotes was lost on an Air France flight from Paris to Munich.

The hologram was en route to a high security printing plant in Bavaria, where it was due to be tested.

Counterfeiters could prey on the Euro

The incident in itself does not pose a threat to the security of the future bank notes, since a new hologram has already been produced and is being tested.

But it has drawn public attention to the whole security issue in general.

Counterfeiters could cash in on the fact that Europeans may not be accustomed to recognising the new banknotes' security features.

People may not only be fooled into accepting forgeries but may also reject genuine notes as fakes.

Euro-cops

But who exactly is responsible for tackling this new type of euro crime?

The European Union's cross-border police force, Europol, started operating officially on 1 October 1998.

It has ambitious plans to target illegal drug trading, the sex trade, money laundering and terrorism across the 15 EU member states and has been described as Europe's answer to the FBI.

But the Austrian Interior Minister Karl Schlogl has rejected such comparisons.

"This is a long way from a European FBI," he said.

"We're not talking about Austrian or French police being active on Spanish soil."

Europol's focus will be the fight against organised crime, and wants to form close ties with Central and Eastern European nations, where crime has soared since the collapse of Communism.

Unlike Interpol, its officers will not gather evidence against suspects on behalf of other forces, but instead pool the intelligence needed to direct inquiries.

"Just as top-level criminals operate across borders, so law enforcement must be capable of co-operating across borders," said John Abbott, head of the National Criminal Intelligence Service which will represent the UK in Europol.

Maybe the euro will have the same fate as currently the US dollar: It will be not only the world's currency of choice, but the underworld's as well.