An article that I wrote in 2000, on the introduction of the Euro, and why I was against it then. Despite what feel to me like substantial changes in my political views in the intervening 11 years - I used to self-describe myself as on the right, while I now self-describe myself as on the left - I was surprised to still stand behind a lot of this analysis. So what has actually changed?
At the core of the article is a belief in a Rousseauan, participative democracy, which I stand by. What has changed - for me, in my view of the economy, at least - is that I used to think that the State was the real impediment to that democracy; I now believe it is the collaboration of a marketised State and its client interest groups, most of the really damaging ones being corporate.
So what is to be done now with the Euro? That is for the next article.
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