re: "It's Still The Politics"

Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner ("The one and only.") looked at systemic and structural problems with the Euro.

Money quote(s):

"The notion of a “stand-alone” single currency was always an idiocy."

No, really, don't sugar-coat it. We can take it. No need to beat-around-the-bush: tell us what you really think.

"German voters never wanted the euro, and were never given the chance by their political class to say no. Adding injury to injury, the promises that were made to them about their new currency have been shown to be false."

9/23

JO - Where the CSME is feared

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Where the CSME is feared

We don't want it here. You are opening up yourself to the good and the bad - but mainly the bad,
say some Grenadians

BY CASSANDRA BRENTON
Associate editor - Sunday publications brentonc@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, July 20, 2008

It is a cool, wet Tuesday night in St George's, Grenada and a group of residents are sharing a few drinks and laughs at a pub in Point Salines.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The Single Market (SM), facilitating the free movement of skills and capital, is in place in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.

The plan also includes, among other things, a single monetary standard by 2015.

According to Caricom, work on the single economy "is ongoing".

But my Grenadian friends - who already share a single currency (the Eastern Caribbean dollar) with their neighbours in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) - are sceptical of the CSME.

The group of five men and one woman told the Sunday Observer that that the SM will only benefit larger territories.

"We don't want it here," all five people sitting at the table said in unison, while requesting anonymity.

"The infected are going to infect the uninfected," interjects the pub owner - who remained standing - meaning that nationals from larger countries, which tend to be plagued by higher rates of crime and violence, could introduce these bad elements into his homeland."