Asking because maybe instead of this annexation bullshit we can convince DC to dial back that ass and revisit the Amero idea.
Asking because maybe instead of this annexation bullshit we can convince DC to dial back that ass and revisit the Amero idea.
Comments
What do you mean even out? Not all EU countries use euro, and purchasing power is very different between them anyway.
what do you mean? There are no valuation differences when everyone uses the same currency. The german euro is wirth as much as the italian euro.
There was a few years (1999 to 2002) between the Euro being launched as a currency (on international exchanges) and it being used as a physical currency in European countries. I was living in UK at the time and not really paying attention, but as far as I know, the different currencies that were replaced by the Euro were "tied" to it at the exchange rate that was valid on a particular date.
https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/euro/history-and-purpose_en#
About 2-3 years. Southern european countries suffered massive inflation, and never really recovered, you can ask any spaniard or italian, they lived much better in the 90s than later (€ was mandatory from 2002 onwards). Germans got what they wanted (the low exports from the south compensated their high exports, stabilizing the currency, therefore they could export as much as they wanted without worrying about their products getting expensive through currency appreciation, the massive inflation that southern countries suffered also helped because germans cars were not that expensive anymore). What germans didn’t expect is that their plan would backfire in 2008-2012 when they had to help southern economies because their collapse would mean Europe and Germany’s collapse as well, and I guess they didn’t expect to shoot their own foot in late 2010s and early 2020s either, but that last episode had nothing to do with the € currency
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Euro.
It wasn’t launched as a currency over night. It was done in phases of years, actually the idea took decades to materialize.
First the euro was introduced as a “virtual currency” in the monetary system. In these years it was used to basically pin down the exact exchange rates between the legacy currencies and the euro. Then 3 years later the initial eurozone countries introduced the physical currency. That way most market shocks of exchanging local currencies for the euro in the greater scheme of things were evened out already. Of course there was still a “shock” in the form of inflation and price gauging still happened when the physical currency was launched. But it wasn’t all that bad and the monetary markets (banks, stock exchanges, funds, central banks) had been using the euro for years so they were well prepared.
Nowadays any country that wants to join the euro has to go through the same process. Have a stable economy, join the virtual currency market, have a stable exchange rate and inflation, and then after some years launch the physical currency.
It’s a lot more complex and lengthy than you might think. It’s a project of decades, not months.
Depends a lot on salaries, since the euro is equal to all. In Portugal our minimum salary is 870€ while in Luxembourg could be 2.000€,that’s the difference.
>After the EU formed and adopted the Euro
The EU hasn’t adopted the Euro. The Euro is only the currency for countries in the Eurozone.
But it’s worth the same everywhere. Prices for certain are still very different from country to country of course.
It didn’t even out. In some countries prices literally doubled overnight and people just had to suck it up.
In Greece we had Greek Drachmas (GRD) before adopting the Euro. The conversion rate at the time of the adoption was (approx.) 1 Euro = 341 GRD.
I specifically remember grocery products that used to cost 50 GRD (which would correspond to 0,15 EUR) were priced at 0,50 EUR after the adoption, marking a shocking 240% increase overnight. And many uneducated people would see it as normal since „50“ became „0,50“.
Other products that used to cost 100 GRD (0,29 EUR) I remember were simply rounded up to 0,30 EUR for the first year, but within a year their price had increased to 1 EUR (again, increase of 240%).
It was so easy for supermarkets and shops to increase the prices like that since most people were so fresh to the idea of the new currency and it was confusing to them. Especially older people that used to tip 50-100 GRD at their local coffee place, after the conversion the started tipping 2-3 EUR because they thought that it’s not much money.
Well, before the Euro was named (in 1995) we had the ECU, which existed since the ‘70s. The Euro was created at a 1:1 conversion rate. Many countries’ official currency was already pegged to the ECU before the introduction of the Euro.
The exchange value was set on a specific date for all partaking nations. it was the exchange ratio to the US-Dollar. Something banks were extremly familiar with. This made it rather fair.
Value differences still exists. Before summer break starts, newspapers will usually release articles like "where you get the most for your euros".
For example a five star hotel in the Alps will hurt much more than a five star hotel in Greece or Spain. Alcohol in the Denmark and Sweden is ridiculously expensive, you can get the cheapest wine in Italy and Croatia. Never buy a car in Austria, always buy in Germany, but sell in Austria.
All goods have their own cheapest/most expensive country.
The price bumps happen with any currency change. When the UK switched from shillings and pence to new pence, my gran was getting lunch from the local bakery evrry day for 30p thinking it was a bargain at 30d or 2/6 but actually 30p is 6/- aka 72d
My country applied in 1977, entered the Union in 1986. Euro became our currency in 2000… There’s countries in the EU that do not use Euro. And Montenegro and Kosovo use Euro and are not even Schengen much less EU. Actually depending who you ask Kosovo is not even a country lol
In 2011 debt crisis some were threatening Greece they would be expelled of the Eurozone. Some in my country wanted to leave Euro as we can no longer control independently our monetary policy and use it as a tool in response to financial crisis.