The great British public
has at least one certainty: however bad the UK’s recent recession was,
the Eurozone is doing worse. And not only UKIP supporters believe that
this is the case: the consensus across the UK being that the euro is the
joint currency of a motley assortment of countries that do not really
fit together while there is enough similarity between the nations that
make up the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and
Wales.
I have heard a former permanent secretary say on a panel at LSE
earlier this year that there is just nothing that the UK economy can
learn from the Eurozone but that the Eurozone in turn is probably doomed
because it lacks ‘the glue’ that holds together the British currency
union. There were a few Scottish visitors in the audience who couldn’t
suppress an incredulous giggle.
But let’s concede that
the Scots at least get the referendum that the Catalans would like to
have and explore the economic case. As even general newspaper readers
may know by now: “the Euro area is not an optimal currency area!” You
get over 2,500 results if you put this phrase into Google and another
1,780 if you replace ‘optimal’ by ‘optimum’. Shock horror. But how
worried should those poor creatures forced to use the euro – that is,
the majority of continental Europeans – be about this verdict? Well, not
more than the Brits who are forced to use the pound sterling.
Read more: Why The ‘Poundzone’ Is As Sub-optimal A Currency Area As The Eurozone
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