Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived
A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?
Update: seemingly not
Update: Oh yeah!
Monday, August 19, 2002
Quids pro quo
I find it awfully difficult to decide which side of the European single currency debate I want to come down on. On the one hand, all the people who are against British membership are just so fucking appalling that it's difficult to stomach being in the same camp as them. On the other hand, the pro-Euro bunch are not exactly any better. So the Mark Steel rule of always voting with the nicest people doesn't really help all that much. What's a chap to do?
I think the problem is that, the idea, in principle, of a single European currency, is a good one. It's cosmopolitan, forward-looking, New Britain, and all the other things that the pro- camp say about it. But it's not possible to have a position on the abstract idea of a single European currency any more; one has to be for or against the only actually existing single European currency, the euro. Which means signing up for a currency which is run by the ECB, with an assymmetric inflation target ("below 2%") which is set on purely technocratic basis with no way of changing it by woting for one party rather than another.
I have a problem with that. First up, I don't like the technical design of the ECB's target; I think it has a deflationary bias. Second, I'm worried about the individuals in charge of ECB policy; I think that they have a deflationary bias. And finally, I remain in the dwindling camp of people who still think that the rate of interest, the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment in an economy are proper subjects of democratic debate. Don't even get me started on the "stability pact" ...
So, I think that there is only one logically and politically consistent policy for me to endorse; the official position of D-squaredDigest is that Europe should adopt the pound sterling as its single currency.
this item posted by the management 8/19/2002 03:31:00 AM
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