"Basically, this is the direction the Euro group is taking us. This concept was born with little regard for the economic health of Europe. In the future, any countries money or economy can totally fail and the world currency operation will continue. What is being built is a new currency system."
~ "FOA", ca. late 2000 / early 2001
From the outset, the currency was designed to be used fairly similar to any other "shared unit in common use across borders", such as meters or degrees-celsius.
Consequently, local/national government continues to decide on their country's fiscal and economic policy (and deals with their employment, debt, taxation etc. issues), whereas the currency unit is to remain merely a non-political means-of-exchange for trade settlement (as a result, identical products have widely differing prices across the euro zone, this is anticipated and accepted by the design) that is to be managed by ECB (which has NO other mandate unlike the Fed that has to worry about employment and economic recovery etc. etc.) at a steady "2%-or-below" inflation rate for a certain level of price stability across euro-zone.
~ "FOA", ca. late 2000 / early 2001
From the outset, the currency was designed to be used fairly similar to any other "shared unit in common use across borders", such as meters or degrees-celsius.
Consequently, local/national government continues to decide on their country's fiscal and economic policy (and deals with their employment, debt, taxation etc. issues), whereas the currency unit is to remain merely a non-political means-of-exchange for trade settlement (as a result, identical products have widely differing prices across the euro zone, this is anticipated and accepted by the design) that is to be managed by ECB (which has NO other mandate unlike the Fed that has to worry about employment and economic recovery etc. etc.) at a steady "2%-or-below" inflation rate for a certain level of price stability across euro-zone.