Euros: What do you think of the Euro?

[takeda]

the introduction of the Euro has been a predominantly positive development.

I agree.

yes, the Euro is an convenient excuse to cover up your own incompetence in personal financial management

Last week I paid 1.20 Euro in the cafe down the corner for what exactly one year ago was 130-140 pesetas. (Remeber, 1 Euro=166.386 pesetas). I can be an incompetent dilapidating moron, but l can still multiply.
The fact is that the cheaper the goods, the higher has been the rounding up, as if the merchants thought that riping you off just a few cents wasn't that bad. Stuff like chewing gum or candy that was 5, 10 or 15 pesetas has gone straight to the same price in cents in most places. Just a few months into this year you could see 8 year old kids rioting for a pocket money increase on TV

[edit]Prices of "autopistas" are still government regulated, that could have something to do with it[edit]

[funkedup]

Capitalist Carebear Wonderland

HEHEHE!

[BUG_EAF322]

The Euro sucks, since the introduction prizes got higher.

[takeda]

OK I retract the Capitalist Carebear Wonderland thing .... let's say the Adamsmithsonian Theme Park... yes, that lovely place where offer and demand really set the prices and you have true competition in true free markets

lovely half-assed capitalism still seems to work better than toejamty half-assed communism, though it is still toejamty and half-assed

[Dowding (Work)]

I am increasingly disillusioned by the EU. I used to be very europhile. I still consider myself to be a modern European, and I get on with Europeans of my age, whereever I go.

But I get annoyed at the current situation. Things like the German/France move to cut the rebate given to the UK (set-up because we were giving more than anyone else to the EU treasury).

Or the fact the new Spanish high speed rail link was paid for by partly British money, yet we have the worst railways in the EU. On a par with Eastern European countries.

Or how new roads in Europe were paid for by British tax payers, yet we still have to pay tolls when we use them.

I'd like to know what we get out of the EU, apart from another level of bureacracy.

The one thing it should be used for is defence. Yet we still rely on the US for most military operations - why is that?

[fffreeze220]

Euro is the best thing that ever happen to europe.
Its the global economy crises that causes the problem. If we would still have our old money it would be quiete the same if not worse.
It takes time to get used to a new currency after u used the old 1 for half a decade.
It takes time but will will benfit from it within the next 2 years.
And i bet england denmark and sweden will have it sooner or later.
Not to forget the swizz. Surrounded by the euro.
they all will join the currency Union sooner or later its just a matter of time.
Latest if our econmy starts growing again the non € countrys will have big problems.

[whgates3]

i dont care how you feel about the € now, as soon as my practice of calling it "the european dollar" catches on you will hate it

[Krusher]

Can one of you guys explain why they dont want Turkey to be part of the European Union? I was under the impression that they had a decent stable economy.

[whgates3]

turkey is permanently on the verge of becoming a muslim fundamentalist nation &/or doing to the kurds what they did to the armenians

[Saintaw]

Euro is great. I work quite a bit with companies in other yuropean countries, no longer need to loose any cash in currency exchange... direct debit!

Same goes if you're on holliday.

I think that after a year, mostly only the elderly here have trouble switching.

PS: yup , you're charged more .. follow the flow, up your prices too

[Pepe]

Originally posted by Dowding (Work)

Or the fact the new Spanish high speed rail link was paid for by partly British money, yet we have the worst railways in the EU. On a par with Eastern European countries.

Or how new roads in Europe were paid for by British tax payers, yet we still have to pay tolls when we use them.

I'd like to know what we get out of the EU, apart from another level of bureacracy.

The one thing it should be used for is defence. Yet we still rely on the US for most military operations - why is that?

Euro is another step on integration. Integration is good, whatever you might look at it. As I told yesterday online, just ask americans if they would be happy with a Californian, NewYorker, Floridan, etc. Dollar, all exclusive from each state, with different quotatons each. Ask them about their thoughts wether this would be possitive or not, both in social-politic ways or economical ones.

btw, you definitely have not the worse rail system. We spend a whooping 10 to 12 hours to travel 600 Kms. (Madrid -> La Coruña). Speed is due to railway limitations.

If we want to grow up and be like the U.S.A. in terms of personal income, one paramount thing to do is creating the conditions to get to that. That is: Big, uniform and serious market.

IMHO, Euro will be good, as long as it's used only as a currency, and not as a political battleground. So far, I am happy with it, despite the price increase. I blame this last thing to the coupling  

Cheers,

[tomato]

Originally posted by Tilt
The UK ...can do what ever it wants...............

Yup.  Now all we have to do is elect a PM who won't wreck the economy, the roads, cheap air fare setup, the fire service ...

[fffreeze220]

Because they kick human rights with feets.
But i am sure we will see it in the EU soon.

[bounder]

Originally posted by Dowding (Work)
I also would like to know how much control we would have over economic policy - interest rates and the like. I'm not too keen on the fact that we would have to move our national gold reserves to Brusselles.

I'm deeply suspicious of the corruption and waste that eminates from the upper echelons of the EU gravy train. Some aspects of it are distinctly undemocratic. I want reform.

Dowding, I understand that this labour government auctioned off the entire UK gold reserve for knock-down prices for a quick sale, leaving on 300 tons in the vault.

Coincidentally 300 tons of gold is the entry price to the Euro.

If you want reform, you must vote in the Euro elections. It's a bit of chicken/egg here - people won't trust the bureaucracy to run europe, but neither will they vote in reformers to the parliament.

I include myself amongst the broadly pro-europeans, but I am with you on the Euro commission, fat, bloated and not under the proper scrutiny. Fisheries, the CAP, Schengen, all these things need to be ironed out.

But better in than out IMO. Interdepency will have postive effects for mutual economic and miltary security in the future.

I would like to see a europe of devolved regions, so that the nation states take a bit of a back seat and local government can work directly with Europe instead of having to do everything through a politically coloured mediator.

[straffo]

Originally posted by Pepe
btw, you definitely have not the worse rail system. We spend a whooping 10 to 12 hours to travel 600 Kms. (Madrid -> La Coruña). Speed is due to railway limitations.

Last week it took me 5:30 hours to go to Torino (Italia) from Paris (in TGV) distance is similar but there is the Alp to cross