Confusion over Euro

We have written a few articles regarding the changeover from
national currencies to the Euro dollar and found the following article to be
extremely interesting, in the light of what is indeed taking place. We quote
from the Christchurch Press, 22-23 December 2001:

"...Mini booms have erupted as people spend the francs,
lire, pesetas and marks they had hidden from the taxman.

One German retail chain is openly urging people to spend
their 'black money'....

Confusion is nothing compared with what could happen as
Europe moves on to the next stage in its grand experiment.

The euro was born out of politics, in part a condition for
France to approve the reunification of Germany.

By erasing national borders, it takes a step toward a
political union that was conceived in the 1940s to reduce the risks of another
European war.

No one broadcasts this goal too loudly these days. Quietly,
though, eurocrats hope the summit just adjourned in Laeken, Belgium, will lead
to some kind of constitution for Europe.

If people accept the euro easily, they may also tolerate
further power-grabbing by Brussels.

But if Europeans feel cheated by sneak price hikes, or
confused by the new currency, they will be hard pressed to back anything that
smacks of an even greater loss of sovereignty....

Europhiles and eurosceptics alike agree that a single
currency is not workable for long without some kind of a federal state.

That's because the European Central Bank controls interest
rates, but national governments still control spending, and the two can have
opposite effects on economic growth....

In the United States, if Texas slumps when California booms,
help is automatically transferred via Washington in the form of taxes collected
in one state and unemployment benefits paid out in the other. Europe doesn't
have such a shock absorber.

There is already friction between countries over the powers
of the European Central Bank....

Ireland, where housing prices doubled in four years, grew by
9 per cent last year and needs to put on the brakes.

Ireland is just a tiny part of the euro economy.

The question is, how much power do the federalists have to
assume to save the euro?

The first test will be whether the people accept some kind
of federal tax to redistribute a welfare service throughout the eurozone....

If a currency needs a state, and Europeans baulk at creating
that, the euro could be in trouble.

Of course, it is not politically correct to even raise such
questions when the EU is aggressively promoting the euro.

Only an American would ask that, scoffs one EU official, who
notes the Maastricht Treaty has no mechanism for withdrawing....

'It is not impossible that the euro will fail,' (says
Robert de Mattei, head of the Italian anti-euro group Lepanto).

Here's how it might unravel in Germany. In 1993 and in
1998, three German economists and one law professor went to court to stop
Germany adopting the euro, claiming it violated laws protecting price stability
and was imposed undemocratically.

They lost both times, but in 1998 the judges wrote that
Germany would join on the assumption that the euro would keep prices stable.

In theory, then, German law could allow for the country to
pull out in the event of severe inflation....

The most likely scenario for disintegration lies in France....

France is ... politically volatile....

A powerful external shock, say a sharp spike in oil prices,
could derail the whole euro project....

'Europe has an irritating habit of ghastly compromise and
muddling through,' says British political scientist and eurosceptic John
Laughland." (emphases added).

Let us make it quite clear that we here at this newspaper
understand from the Bible prophecies, that the euro will not collapse but will
continue on doing the job it was intended to do i.e. to unite the countries of
Europe as could be done in no other way except through economy.

Readers please take note that the references just quoted were
taken from a media report before the euro was introduced.

This information will stand you in good stead to watch the
progress of this currency and other rules that gradually take over the
sovereignty of each country in that area.