Forex: The Ties That Bind

By: Mike Campbell

The Eurozone currently consists of 16 member states that all met the convergence criteria set by the EU to join the single European currency (well, in principle at least). Within this block of nations, there is no longer any national currency and all prices are in Euros. As a European who travels a lot and has worked in several European countries, let me tell you, it offers great advantages in terms of convenience and price comparability.

The current Greek debt crisis and the threat of wider problems in Spain, Portugal and Italy have led some to ponder the exclusion of nations that do not come up to the required standard and undermine international confidence in the Euro. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, gave her support to the idea that the club should have the power to exclude such a delinquent member in any future crisis as a last resort. Speaking in the Bundestag, Merkel stated that the Greek crisis has demonstrated that existing EU powers are insufficient to deal with the problems it has raised.

Whilst this makes for great headlines, there was no detail offered as to how a country that had adopted the single currency could be de-coupled from it. All of the trade between the rouge state and its Eurozone partners would be conducted in Euros; their sovereign currency would no longer exist and could hardly be resurrected overnight. The transitionary period would be worse than the crisis itself. What would happen to the currency held by the citizens of the country and what measures would be put in place to protect them from the nose dive that their replacement currency would face as soon as it entered into circulation and was traded on the foreign exchanges? Whilst the concept of such a divorce is politically pleasing, it is more like trying to dissolve the relationship with your children rather than your spouse.