aster wrote:BillyB wrote:We are well within our rights to want to keep control over monetary policy and keep key decisions Britain centric.
What control?

A single European country has absolutely no control over its currency - it's all illusionary. The choice is to A) join the Euro and be part of a major worldwide currency (managed by the Germans which is the biggest plus of all) -OR- B) give the shylocks control over your currency.
BillyB wrote:A single currency doesn't always make competition, quite the opposite in fact. A large % of firms in Europe have no competitive edge over each another because costs are fixed and pegged at similar levels across all Countries trading in the Euro.
Yes - you can't devalue your currency to prop up your economy any more. But if it's so good to have various currencies everywhere, why doesn't the US have a difference currency in every state?

Why not have Washington State with Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks have one currency, and Idaho with its potato and agricultural dependency have it's own "Idaho Dollar". According to you this would be a good thing, and would make the US economy much more competitive?

The BoE control policy by various measures. I'm not just talking about currency here but overall policy decisions. You think the BoE are all puppets who really take orders from Brussels?! That is exactly why we don't want to be part of it. We are run as an isolated entity and although we have made a mess in the past of things, I wouldn't ever let Germany get their hands on our economy.
And your reference to the Germans is clearly based on no solid information. Why would we want them to manage us? The irony is the German policy makers don't want to be the peacemaker anymore and didn't want to save Greece's ass but they gave in to pressure. Merkel is trying to change Germany's traditionally model of steady everything. But the powers to be soon stooped that stance and kept everything under control to manipulate the export system even at the expense of slow growth. Britain is run completely differently so how could Germany add value? Maybe in the current climate they could steady the ship, but anything beyond that probably not.
What makes me laugh is that pro-Germans keep banging on about how you have contributed more to the bailouts - I think its more about reacting once the horse has bolted. I'll tell you why. You have controlled the Euro to suit your own terms (exports, exports, exports and cash saving) for a long time and this has had an adverse affect on other Countries - such as France, Spain, Greece, Ireland etc. They cannot use policies to devalue their currencies so Germany is exploiting this. You rely on exports so have more cash available. Simple - invest your mountains of cash in the safest, government backed, cast iron returns available - bailing out another Country. Where is the German innovation in that? Give me opportunity and some risk taking any day over the mundane.
The thing you need to understand is - both Countries are in the sh*t no matter how you want to look at it, and can probably both learn from each other. The problem is, despite the smiling faces and glossy politics, we still have a deep rooted hatred for each other.
And the U.S is a completely separate entity altogether. But maybe one of the mod's would like to give their view on this!!