Re: starship-design: Euro

[Lindberg <lindberg@olywa.net>]

Timothy van der Linden wrote:
> 
> Nels Lindberg wrote:
> 
> >The European Union is farthest along this path and in 1999
> >the "euro" will come online as the official currency of an economy and
> >population which is larger than the US.  Obviously, the euro will
> >quickly replace the dollar as the world's dominant currency due to its
> >stability (the Germans will get to run the bank) and size.
> 
> Ha, if only the Europeans were that convinced. These days virtually all
> politicians are worried to poll the population about this subject.
> The latest news about the Euro is that we seem to get an anarchy regarding
> the president of the European bank. There are 2 candidates, but one France
> just said it will use its veto for its own candidate. (Their own candidate
> is the least favourite of the two.)
> 
> Timothy (citizin of the Economically United Europe)
Timothy,
	In the hindu religion, one of the festivals celebrating the god Krishna
in the town of Puri consisted of a massive idol on a huge, twenty
wheeled cart which was drawn through the town at a fairly good clip.
Krishna devotees who hurled themselves under the cart didn't slow it
down much. It was called the Jagganath (world-ruler), from which english
gets the word juggernaut.  I hope not to offend you, but from this side
of the Atlantic the euro looks like a Jagganath, unstoppable.  The
"moment of truth" for monetary integration is so near (252 days until
banking in euros possible), and it would appear that the only
alternative to going ahead is delay (which can only go on for so long)
or backing out altogether.  I don't view the second option as viable.
Respectfully, from the Pacific
Nels Lindberg
	P.S.  I heard on the radio the other day that some trading in euros was
being done.  I'm not quite sure if this is the same thing as a
proto-euro, but the "European Currency Unit," an averaging of european
currencies, is worth US$ 1.1067 <http://www.xe.net/currency/>