Chris

And that hits the nail right on the head. To view a currency as merely a convenient unit of exchange is to completely miss the point. That is almost the least of the roles modern fiat money plays in our capitalist system.

The Euro doesn't exist to allow Europeans to buy stuff more easily in countries other than their own. It exists because currency control is essential to the life of a nation state, which is precisely what the Euro's architects want the EU to become. That they have put the cart before the horse and implemented the currency without also implementing full central governmental management of it is the reason the Eurozone is now in the mess that it is in.

What astounds me even more is that even now, wilfully blind federalists like Tony Bliar continue to assert that removing the Euro, which is the root cause of the ongoing disaster in Europe, could somehow make things worse.