crunch hits EU
Supporters of the euro admit that countries can leave the system. Germany and France are flouting EU regulations to save their jobs and industries. The union threatens countries with fines for having excessive deficits, though Greece and Portugal have never paid such fines. The 90p euro may need to devalue or be speculated against. Civil unrest threatens EU governments. Germany is loath to bail out other countries. Ireland is almost broke while (non-EU) Iceland and (EU) Latvia* already are. (Mr Heffer, today) The UK still has its own currency but I expect all the euroland countries have melted down their old franc- and Mark-coins and shredded their notes. Maybe, instead of having to mint and print all the lire and pesetas again, those nations could create electronic-only versions of them. The US dollar and Swiss franc could also circulate freely in the union. And the pound.
