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Problems with the euro?
Since the 1st of January, 300 million europeans have a new currency the euro.
This thread is for post your problems or anecdotes that have ocurred to you.
Personally, I have no one. I haven't moved from my house since the terrible new years eve party. I have a terrible headache....
i was about to post the same thread but u did it before me 
i hope that u feel better now
lol im an american, im not sure if im allowed to post here or not...
overall, i feel that the euro is a great idea. but one fear that i do have about it is...what if it somehow collapses? would that mean that the nations that are using the euro right now will be collectively in deep sh*t? no offense, you guys.
also, im not too fond of the way that the euro was "marketed". lol on CNN, i saw this euro dance squad. i think it was in frankfurt or dresden, they kept on saying euro is good, euro is good.
to sum it up: overall, a great idea
my two cents
phase4
I live in the UK so I'm not affected by it well not yet...
I know if it works for the rest of europe, our government here will join and try and put it into to use, and I have a feeling that will happen in the near future.
But my view on it personally I don't like it in the slightest, as I've said before having your own currency is like having a flag, you lose that you lose your identity in a fiancial way. Its a pity in a way because its history being destroyed in front our eyes.
Then theres the confusion of working the prices out for things how do people know their getting ripped off? I know I'd be pretty pissed if I had to replan my fianances having to work everything out for square 1 again.
whats next are they going to make everyone speak the same language?
I'm against it I don't dislike any other european countries I'm not xenophobic in anyway, and I like being a European but at the end of the day everyone needs to keep their individuality and that means having their own currency and not people standing by their shopping scratching their heads trying to work out weather they've been ripped off or not.
Now im probably just saying this because i was raised in the US. I know im wrong in so many ways you don't have to flame me, but i think the euro is a great idea in trying to unite all the countries in Europe. It just seems rediculous to have so many smaller countries right next to each other and have to change your currency every time you go across the borders. On my trip to Europe i found this really really annoying. As for all speaking the same language...It sure would be nice for everyone in the world to be able to completely understand everyone else in the world. One step towards global unity? Maybe...Perhaps now we can stop killing each other. Just my thoughts, hope i didn't offend anyone.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Dj O'Callaghan I live in the UK so I'm not affected by it well not yet... I know if it works for the rest of europe, our government here will join and try and put it into to use, and I have a feeling that will happen in the near future. But my view on it personally I don't like it in the slightest, as I've said before having your own currency is like having a flag, you lose that you lose your identity in a fiancial way. Its a pity in a way because its history being destroyed in front our eyes. Then theres the confusion of working the prices out for things how do people know their getting ripped off? I know I'd be pretty pissed if I had to replan my fianances having to work everything out for square 1 again. whats next are they going to make everyone speak the same language? I'm against it I don't dislike any other european countries I'm not xenophobic in anyway, and I like being a European but at the end of the day everyone needs to keep their individuality and that means having their own currency and not people standing by their shopping scratching their heads trying to work out weather they've been ripped off or not. |
| quote: |
| But my view on it personally I don't like it in the slightest, as I've said before having your own currency is like having a flag, you lose that you lose your identity in a fiancial way. Its a pity in a way because its history being destroyed in front our eyes. |
lol again, i hope i hope i dont get flamed for what i say
dj callaghan makes a great point aboiut the cultural individuality issue w/ the euro, and i do agree with him.
but this is my primary concern (im trying to elaborate on a point i made above). you guys all know about whats going on in argentina, i hope. a major cause of their current crisis is their pegging of their currency (peso, i think? lol my spanish teachers gonna kill me) against the US dollar. it made a rock stable currency, of course. however, when japan and all those PacRim nations underwent an economic "meltdown", investors started pulling out of argentina. argentina continued their peg to the dollar, which was good b4 all this happened. but now, look at what the peg ratio has done. it has made exports artifically expensive, which really shuts down foreign trade. and now, when it is time to devalue, the number of pesos in a bank account doesnt go up...therefore, the working class gets crapped on.
etc etc etc....im thinking, what if some nation that uses the euro runs into economic hard times? would they turn out like argentina? theyll be smart enuogh, im sure, to try to do something with the currency...but its gonna be one heck of a nightmare to try to coninve 12 other nations to devalue, up the value, etc etc
my point (if u were too lazy to read)- not only does it take away cultural/national individuality, it also takes away economic individuality.
word.
phase4
moin (German "hello")
i dislike the euro. all people here are talking about it. the last 5 days the only things u watch in TV is euro.
many products geting (ahh my bad english) [want to say that have to pay more many for many products]
u have to pay for exchanging the DM into Euro.surely, the Euro is better for big companys which are importing and exporting.
but for the normal people like me, the euro is unnassessary. (argh, sorry for vad english)
btw. the coins and the notes are bullshit *g*
I think the Euro is OK, now I never have to change my guilders in pesetas when I go to Spain or something like that, it is very easy with the price-comparing
the problem is though that the inflation is going skyhigh, everyone changes the prices in their benefit, and I don't like that at all, cause my salary, allowance etc..... isn't changing at all
(let's be a nationalist 
)
Holland is doing the best in changing the guilder into the Euro (�), on the first day allready 65% of all cash exchanges was in Euro's (in Italie this was 5 % ) and in every ATM place you can get Euro's (Italie is 85%)
sorry I had to tell you guys this but it makes me proud
I feel like having to add my 2 cents here too:
1. @Lightsaver:
No, you don`t have to pay to change DM into Euro. You only have to pay if you change your money in a bank where you have no account.
2. @PhaseFour+ DJ Callaghan
You won`t loose any cultural identity just because of the Euro, we simply move closer together. It`s not history being destroyed in front of your eyes. You wouldn`t say that people destroyed history when Wales, England and Scottland formed the UK, would you?
The Euro is one of the biggest chances for Europe and I wouldn`t mind if we would move even closer together and establish a United States of Europe with lets say two official languages (which could be english and spanish since they are the easiest one to learn). If you read what the people from the US write here you`ll notice that everyone seems to have their own cultural identity (Texas, NY etc.) but it`s still one country. I strongly believe that Europe will unite someday and I also believe that the Euro is the biggest step toward this.
I feel as a European who lives in Germany and I`d be really proud if my grand-grand son would someday say "I feel as a 'Earth man' (Whatever) who lives in Europe.". Don`t be afraid of the future!
I'm glad that the Euro is arrived. I live on the border of the netherlands-germany so I spend my money in germany to. Now everytime we are going out in germany or when I'm buying something in germany I have to change my dutch money into german money. When i'm going to belgium I need to change my money in belgium money. I think that the euro is good for the unity of europe.
Now there are poeple bitchin of their problems with the euro and so on but that will evantually fade away.
it works ok for me
i can still pay with ma guilders, and i get euro's back. i like the money....i like the way people are dealing with it....and i like new things we'll see how it'll be in the long run
oh btw......abt......if you read this: you have any of those cill-pillz left? 
I think that most of you overlook the basic point of O'Callaghans post and focus on individual sentences. The problem with the Euro is that it is too much too soon. In Europe we have a very long history of individual countries with each their characteristics as opposed to the five houndred years of history of North America (I know there were Indian people before that but bare with me) whose states basically share a lot of common grounds.
Take France and Denmark as two countries that share very little in terms of both histroy and characteristics. France have their great Revolution of 1789(?) and even today solves internal problems by storming onto the barricades or going on strikes, whereas Danish people have always been way too lazy and comfortable to do anything like that with all "revolutions" taking place with no use of bloodshed. Also the french are an ethnically varied people in contrast to us pale danes, and as such there are differing opinions on things such as immigration laws.
We as european countries need time to adjust ourselves to each others differences. When such a process is hurried along you end up with social divides and problems, like seen in the unification of Germany, where there's even today (in my view) is first class citizens and second class citizens, and the former Yugoslavia, where internal struggle broke loose as soon as Tito was gone. With the european community (the EC) there was the historical unique chance of unifying an entire continent in a long smooth transition, but unfortunately politicians eager to sign historical documents have hastened this process into the EU with its joint army, currency and police work.
I am 100% for a unified Europe (including the countries that currently are outside), for nothing else then at least as a counterbalance to the USA. But I believe that a lot of the steps on the road to this goal (including the Euro) shouldn't necessarely be taken now, as it alienates people from the european project and makes them feel pushed into something they can't fathom in its entirety. And when national symbols (like a currency) is taken away from them at the same time, it generates an opposition against EU that prevents it from functioning optimally.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the only *concrete* advantage of the Euro as an everyday currency suggested by the entire army of politicians and economists are the removal of the need for money exchange when travelling in the EU. Hardly worth the effort in my book.
Well, sorry for the long rant, but I think it is important not to ignore or downplay currencies as a poor mans national identity.
The Euro is nothing that has been "invented" just a few years back but has a far longer history (The European Union has an even longer history). Everything started with the Montan Union directely after the second world war but this may take us too far here...The decision to have a single currency was made back in 1978 and since then (and also before) all european countries worked together to form a unified economic region so the Euro is NOT something hurried or came too fast.
Next point is that the big advantage of the Euro is NOT that you don`t have to change money anymore when you travel. The big advantage is that you have an economic region that has one currency so business in Europe don`t have the dangers of fluctating exchange rates within Europe AND with trades outside Europe. If you have high fluctations with currencies then businesses can`t plan what they will earn when exporting goods. This issue may seem small to you but when you consider that in 1985 one dollar was over 3 Deutsche Mark and in 1995 it was 1,35 Marks you may get what I mean. So the more globalisation occures in the world the more important it is to have one single currency in an economic region. This preserves jobs and is responsible for a stable economic growth in that region.
And one last point: I don`t notice any opposition to the Euro in my country and haven`t heard that, now that the Euro is finally in the pockets of everyone, there is a new opposition growing in the other countries that have the euro now.
Get over it with "national identity" and everything. Out children will know nothing else but the Euro and they will surely not have a national identity problem because of the Euro.
I also think that your (o'callaghan's and tranceaholic's) attitude twoards the Euro, where u assume that the currency is some kind of a cultural identification and symbol of individuality, is a bit exaggerated.
Dont mix up culutre and economy too much. Currencies come and go after all! In Austria we have had 4 different currencies during the last 100 years, does that mean that we are culturally schizo..hm..QUATTRO-phrenic? just matter of global economy and politics...
I've already started to THINK in Euro after 3 days wohoo And tell me..what's better than a Hamburger for ONE Euro? What a feeling..handing over that shining beautiful thick coin and receiving some juicy fresh hot Hamburger...
I dont see any reason to wait any longer, there will always be big economic desparities(?) between countries like Poland and Germany for example, no poit to wait. In fact it's even good to "hurry up" as a kind of motivating other countries..yeah
no power tto think right now so bye
Excellent thread!
Sir. Lunchalot, You do your fellow europeans proud with your statements, you obviously are well educated on the matter
Its simple, Unification or Isolation.. Which do you think will benefit you and your children?
A united Europe is a strong Europe.
.........
i still have like $10 worth of coins in guilders, marks, francs and lire from my trip to europe a few years ago. i'll be back this summer, and it'll make it a whole lot easier.
inflation is a problem though. i read in my macroeconomics book. in the past 20 years in italy, the inflation had been around 10% while Germany its been around 2%. a strong and uniform monetary policy is the solution but will all the countries agree?
i haven�t had any problems with the �uro yet...
@trancegiant: i think what you mean, things SEEM to be cheaper, but they aren�t, but it is a nice psychological effect, when you see things beeing only half (germany) as expensive than earlier
but one thing sucks.
a local club raised the�r damn prices for all the drinks 
some coke with rum: before 0.50�, now 1�
and almost everything is now at least 0.5 more expensive
that sucks BIG time
bahhh
c-ya
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Excite inflation is a problem though. i read in my macroeconomics book. in the past 20 years in italy, the inflation had been around 10% while Germany its been around 2%. a strong and uniform monetary policy is the solution but will all the countries agree? |
Well that's an intersting point actually. How are the inflation rates - or any other individual economic indicators - going to work for individual countries if there's a unified currency? I presume that the value of the currency is dependant on the economic state of all participant nations? So, essentially, if your country is experiencing a strong, competitive economy, whereas the all other nations are lagging behind somewhat, wouldn't that work unfairly to your detriment? The value of a strong currency cannot be underestimated - what's the incentive to not go on an importing splurge? Where's the value in being globally competitive if you're essentially dependant on the international performance of other nations?
Or is that just one of the risks involved in a unified currency?
I think the Euro can only be a more stable currency, but, quite apart from the cultural/sociological matters, can a unified currency really work without an authoritiaive unification of government?
Wow, we`re really getting in depth now but I`ll try my best to explain:
All aspects of monetary policy is no longer in the hands of the individual countries but in the hands of the european central bank (ecb) in Frankfurt. The ecb controls all aspects of how much money there is in the participating countries and all aspects of how high interst rates for banks are, so it`s not possible for a country to slide back to a high inflation but only for whole europe if the policy of the ecb fails. All this is only possible under the premises that all the participating countries stick the maxium debt limit (60% of what a country has as gross domestic product).
To generalize this: As a country (before the euro!) you had two possibilities to produce economic effects: Monetary policy and public investments. Now you only have one instrument left, making public investments. The two boarders set in the Maastricht treaty limit these actions. The maximum inflation rate limits the possibilities on the monetary side and the maximum budget debt limits the public investments. The ecb is now in control of the monetary policy so individual countries can only make public investments but not make any monetary decision.
This also answers Renegades last question, if a unified currency would only work if there was a unified government. If we had a unified government we would also put the second instrument out of the hands of the individual countires, so the answer to your question is no. The euro only works because there is an independent central bank (the ecb), a unified government is not neccesary for the Euro to succeed. But with all the investments from the european commision in europe there already is a part of the second instrument (public investments) not in the hands of the individual countires anymore, so you can clearly make out a trend towards a europe that also has a unified government (in the long run). In my opinion the path for europe is set and I believe it`s a good path.
Oh, I forgot to answer your question about importing and global competetiveness. Here it comes:
When it comes to imports we have to differ between two things: Imports into the European Union and "imports" between EU countries. Technically an import between, lets say France and Germany, is not an import anymore (also from the tax side of view although there`s still a lot to be done there, but we`re talking about currencies here), since europe is a unified economic region without inner boundaries. When we talk about imports into the EU we now have the situation that imports still depend on the value of the currency (the euro now) but we have a much better possibility of planning imports because there are fewer fluctuations in the exchange rates now and ther are less transaction costs with a single currency. So in my opinion the euro will make a shortage of imported goods less likely (although a big unified economic region like europe now has a lot more ressources within its boundaries that a single country could have) and will stabalise the prices of imported goods.
When it comes to global competitiveness we have to clear up two things before. Each currency has an inner value and an outer value I don`t know the correct terms here). The inner value is the stability of prices (=inflation) and the outer value is the exchange rates to other currencies like the dollar. The inner value is the more crucial one of the two because the outer value usually follows the inner vlaue (as now seen in argentinia where the currency crashed because the inner value of the currency was only virtual because it was attached to the dollar). The inner value of the euro is very strong (...Maastricht) and the outer value is very low at the moment. The weak outer value is not explainable in economic terms and (this is my personal point of view) only psychological because the euro was used virtual since 1999 when all bank transactions and transactions between countries were only made in euro but noone had the euro in it`s pocket. What happens now is what I expected to happen. Within the last days the europ took a big leap toward a stronger outer value and I believe this will continue since it is impossible in the long run that the outer value doesn`t follow the inner value of a currency. To sum this up: Yes I believe the euro will be very competitive with other currencies since it has a very stable inner value which is additionally secured through the Maastricht treaty.
This must have been my longest post ever and I hope that at least some of this was of interest.
...and now hand me over my diploma!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Renegade Well that's an intersting point actually. How are the inflation rates - or any other individual economic indicators - going to work for individual countries if there's a unified currency? I presume that the value of the currency is dependant on the economic state of all participant nations? So, essentially, if your country is experiencing a strong, competitive economy, whereas the all other nations are lagging behind somewhat, wouldn't that work unfairly to your detriment? |
I heard the other day that in France a man walked into a pub and started buying beers with monopoly money and ran off when someone finally figured out what he was doing.
Made me laugh
What annoys me is that the euro has born with two dead coins: The 1 and 2 cent coins.
ALL THE PRICES AND ROUNDED TO 0 AND 5!!!
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