[ex-Texan]

IMHO the Euro currency will fail. Already it is trading at .87 to the dollar. It will soon be fluctuating wildly between European nations and inflation will drive it down even lower. This currency is a vast experiment gone crazy and may drive Europe into a severe recession.

[hoot2]

has kellogg's started puttin' "euro's" into cereal boxes yet?

[Tacis]

How could tribes that have been waring with one anaother for 2,000 years give up the primary symbol of their culture, their unit of currency? The Greeks surrender the Drachma, the Dutch, the Guilder, and the Frensch, the Franc? How could this happen? This is the first step in the establishment of the Fifth Reich! In 5 to 10 years, several of these former nations will have become so weak that they will have to "incorporate" into another nation, unitl all but Germany are gone. The tribes of Europe will merge and the old cultures disappear into the facist culture of the Hun.

[PatrickHenry]

If the Euro fails, they'll just keep on using dollars. US money is the world's default currency anyway.

[Khepera]

This IS great news. You're a Peon Union fails and all their slaves are belong to us!!

[KirklandJunction]

My bartender friend in Ireland says "Pound, Punt, Euro, Dollar, ach, tell me what you've got in your wallet and I'll show ya' how much I'll pour!"

[hsszionist]

Next stop, the Union of European Socialists Republics. Ain't it grand.

[dr_who]

Maybe. Just the same, let's hope it doesn't. I don't think the failure of the Euro would benefit any country, really. And don't be too depressed if it actually does work out for them, despite everything.

[Voltage]

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of the 'k'. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replased with the 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20% shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double leters which have always been a deterent to akurate speling. Also al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer peopl will be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to oza kombinations of letas.

After ziz fifz yer ve vil have a rali sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu anderstand ech oza.

Ze drem of an united urop vil finali kum tru!

[kampeska]

This will succeed. Each state in the U.S. having its own currency and rate of exchange would be cumbersome and unproductive. European productivity will be enhanced and there will be a premium for a common currency. This premium will be like a dividend for for all of Europe. It should on its own stimulate economic activity. and make the people holding the currency wealthier.

[malarski]

The common currency serves the political objective of changing Europe's civic discourse by supplanting political reasoning with economic calculation. The euro is an instrument for producing a European superstate, which requires erasing from the nations' populations their national identities, which means their distinctive memories.

Wishful thinking on part of George F. Will. History shows that national identities are hard to erase. Former Yugoslavia comes to mind, where various nationalities lived under a totalitarian system without a war and without losing their national identity. Breakup of Yugoslavia clearly "showed" how these national identities are embedded in people's conscience.

The main reason that Will is against the EU, is that this superstate will be in competition with us and maybe our globalists will not have as much control on the European countries, as they have right now.