About the Euro
02-June-2005
permalinkThe vote against the European constitution is not a vote against Europe - or against European people working and living together. It is a vote against policies which befit the rich whilst simultaneously make the rest of us poorer
Time for a currency exchange from Guardian Unlimited: Newsblog:
Much sense from the Guardian economics editor. I'm not so sure his solution of scrapping the Euro is very practical. But it shows what is wrong. And getting rid of neoliberal economic policies would be a first step, as well as some kind of democratic control over the European Central bank.
I've been in six European countries in the last 10 days. Of course everyone is very happy hot to have to carry endless wedges of different currencies - although interestingly two of the countries I've been in - Estonia and Romania do not have the Euro. But - perhaps more than anyone else - those countries are suffering from the mindless neo-liberal policies - which if course are backed most enthusiastically by the Euro sceptic government of the UK. And people are not prepared to accept the crassness of the politicians telling us that if we vote against the Constitution we are voting against peace in Europe.
Just in case any ed-tech readers wonder what this rant has to do with them - part of the neo liberal policy is to attack open source software and impose draconian copyright legislation.
"At the time the euro was launched, opposition on the left came from three distinct groups. The Keynesians said a one-size-fits-all economy would be bad for jobs and growth. The greens said vesting power in an unelected remote central bank would cause a crisis of political legitimacy. The Marxists said that the single currency was a Trojan horse for neoliberal economic policies. All three predictions have proved to be 100% accurate."
