Those living in Europe might be familiar with the currency of the European Union called EYPO/EURO...

Those whose countries have given up their own currencies and are using euro now, are you satisfied with it or do you miss your own money? Also, do you feel that the situation of the country has improved, remained the same or worsened after the conversion to euro?
Those who don't have euro as currency, would you be glad if your country adopted it as national currency?

I am living in Estonia, a country with one of the shittiest living standards in the EU. We had our own money in the beginning of the 20th century but this was given up afterwards because as a member of Soviet Union we used the universal money, the rouble.

After leaving USSR we have restored our own money and we still have it, however, our government (consisting mostly of politicians of former USSR, btw), is trying all the dirty and less dirty possible means to get rid of our currency and adopt euro. The conversion of euro costs money. It costs enormously for our already broke country. Who pays the price? The people will. The people will have to suffer the reduction of wages, the loss of jobs, the loss of homes, starving and the rise of the wages of the politicians who "deserve" our sacrifices because they're working for a "good goal"...

This will be decided in July. If yes, then our money is taken away to foreign stations to be destroyed. New money will be given to people (and who says they won't do the same as they did last time when converting from roubles to our own currency, namely, disturbing the balance of the money resulting in people losing half or more of their savings in the blink of an eye...)...

Food is already even more expensive than in Germany/Austria etc... It will get more expensive after euro, that will be for sure...

Once again... this is how it is here... We have prices of Europe, wages of sub-Saharan Africa and politicians of former USSR.
At least people can leave this country and they're doing it and they will. That is also my hope that I can one day gather enough money to leave and get a proper job abroad and get paid like a normal human being. Because looking at the tendencies at the moment there will be no more our country any more... it'll just be a wasted province sold off to foreign companies...

I remember reading an article about Estonia being an "economic miracle"...the article was from late 90ties...seems it turned wrong way meanwhile...

Written by Ellrohir on 20.02.2010 at 14:06

I remember reading an article about Estonia being an "economic miracle"...the article was from late 90ties...seems it turned wrong way meanwhile...

It did turn out very wrong...

I like it faster all Europe change it its be better Im pissed of change lats, euro, kronner in aiports, when I was drive true Latvia/Estonia-Finland/Sweden
lats/ekk-euro/sek realy it was pain in ass, good Tallin-Helsinki farry take euros, good its 2 H drive(in thet fucking day was fucking storm and fucking 2m wawes and fats farry was canceled) so 2h I bought coffe and whiksy (for home drink) , so faster be euro no problem and life be easyer

So much about whining in our country...we still live quite good...and it is also caused by the fact, we still DONT have Euro...but politicians are rushing to install it as soon as possible, bah...

Written by Ellrohir on 20.02.2010 at 15:03

So much about whining in our country...we still live quite good...and it is also caused by the fact, we still DONT have Euro...but politicians are rushing to install it as soon as possible, bah...

Swedish people live well, but they think they dont, they have luxary problems, but not such like Nederland football team LOL
I wish I can say it about latvian people, some old people has pension ls120 per month and Ls 70 goes taxes for aparmant, gass, elecvtricity, heating and running, and survive in ecah day you need ls10 and more , I say nornla money to live you need ls500-Ls750 in month, till we wont get it i wont work in Latvia, I doubt I ever will, I wanna get normnal wester Europian penion, they etleast wont fuck poeple

Estonia lives better they loaned millions to Latvia hahhahahhaha make fun about our asshole gourement

I remeber in 1991 when soviet rubles, was changed to latvian rubles nick named repčiki because of our national bank pressident Einārs Rep?e nick name sin streets Marisian or alian look at his fave you see why .

In 1993 or 94 rep?iki was changed to Lats, in those days Ls 5 as weekley living money, nowdays its money what you give to your kid like school money LOL

http://www.eib.org/img/manager/bodies/bg_m_repses.jpg

this is graffiti in tounel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timo/653131/

you see SPACE SHIP LOL

I'm not a macroeconomics buff so i don't see how it affects each country individually, but i think Europe needs a harmonized currency, just like we needed a free common market. China, Japan, Russia and the USA are economically far too strong now for any of the european countries (even Britain or Germany) to compete individually with them. their corporate interests and sheer state power would have eaten up the poorer countries(most of eastern Europe) years ago, with the wealthy countries being next in line. it's bad even now, but it would have been far FAR worse if we didn't adapt to these changes in the world economic order.

@Viggo i'm sorry to hear about that but that was bound to happen sometime, i know we'll change to Euro in about 10 years or so, it won't be pretty, printing money costs a lot but i hope the process won't be as rushed as you say it is in Estonia..

on the plus side (to give just one example of why a common currency is better, i'm sure there are others) imagine what chaos it would have been, you couldn't go from country to country without having to change your currency. say you're the owner of a very large and successful business and you plan on establishing international trade relations with partners in Spain, Italy, France and Germany. to get a decent price for goods you'd have had to monitor the Peseta, the Lira, the Franc and the Mark all at once. or you plan to do a tour of Europe and you have to get the currency for each country, so you have 100 francs, 100 marks, 100 liras and whatnot in your pocket. unnecessary pain in the ass.

i think adopting a common currency in Europe is for our own good, even though the results of that aren't visible just yet in most countries. if you want just one benefit(again, i'm sure there are many others but i barely passed Macroeconomics ), it totally simplifies international transactions, you don't have to constantly change to whatever currency, thus attracting foreign investments, thus creating more jobs and consequently raising salaries, but it doesn't stop there, more taxes would go to the state which can fund better infrastructure, education or public health systems etc., thus leading to a better standard of living.

sure, this would mean some banks and exchange houses who earned some revenue from changing european currencies would die out, but let's face it, exchange houses are hardly the motor of the economy and banks make most of their money from loans anyway.

i won't say i'm a genius here who has all the answers, like i said, i barely passed macroeconomics, but i can see why this would be beneficial for Europe as a whole.. if anyone has any counter-arguments to what i wrote here please speak up, after all i need to know this shit, presumably it's related to what i'm gonna do for a living after i finish college..

The problem of common currency is, that problems of one will sink all...as seen on Greece example now...

Written by Ellrohir on 20.02.2010 at 17:46

The problem of common currency is, that problems of one will sink all...as seen on Greece example now...

True... as already noted... the sinking countries with Euro are Greece, Spain and Ireland... the more successful countries such as the UK, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have all their original currencies (as for Great Britain, they will most probably never adopt euro)...

Written by Ernis on 20.02.2010 at 17:49

Written by Ellrohir on 20.02.2010 at 17:46

The problem of common currency is, that problems of one will sink all...as seen on Greece example now...

True... as already noted... the sinking countries with Euro are Greece, Spain and Ireland... the more successful countries such as the UK, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have all their original currencies (as for Great Britain, they will most probably never adopt euro)...

Same Sweden
Those countries remeber 40 years ago there was lower life quality how in Latvia even Lv was in ussr those days, Greece, Irlan, Portugula rise because of EU

I didnt mean the countries itself...i meant the effect on the whole Euro-zone - because problems in Greece/Irleand/Spain damaged the position of Euro as trustworthy currency...and that obviously has impact on economics of all countries using Euro...

here in Czech people think the crisis hit us badly, but we still were and are lucky, that we are using our own "crown" (CZK)

Same here in Latvia, it's very rare that we see a person from a different race here and it would be very weird if I saw a lot of them... hm.
Latvia will join the Eurozone in 2011 if everything goes as it was planned. I'm well aware of the problems that Euro is causing but then again, how much worse it can be? It's already bad even though the local currency (LVL) at least is stable, but since Latvia joined EU it has always been like we're having inflation. Funny is that there's no inflation, it just feels like that.

For Latvia the most important thing at the moment is to repay all the loans the stupid politicians have been taken... I bet it wouldn't have been harder if we hadn't took them in the first place because now... I can just quote you, Viggo:

Written by Ernis on 20.02.2010 at 13:50

Who pays the price? The people will. The people will have to suffer the reduction of wages, the loss of jobs, the loss of homes, starving and the rise of the wages of the politicians who "deserve" our sacrifices because they're working for a "good goal"...

It's like the non-politician citizens of Latvia loaned (I still think politicians should have brought up a referendum about it)... Pffft.

Written by Ragana on 20.02.2010 at 18:53

It's like the non-politician citizens of Latvia loaned (I still think politicians should have brought up a referendum about it)... Pffft.

Referendum? People are the last ones whose opinion is asked... Do you think that anyone has even asked people "Do you want euro?". The same faces are in government... the same dudes have been there for 20 years... some of them have managed to leave the country and start working in the EU parliament where they get paid even better... their former apprentices are continuing their policy...

That's WHY I said they should have asked that to us. Awkay, they asked if we want to join EU and we said "yes", but I think we have the rights to vote for/against the Euro.

If sacking the parliament had been so easy, we would have done it already. But to do that we must have a good president when actually we don't have that one too. Someone has to rule, right? I'd say we should seek for a long lost prince...

I don't really see why it would be a bad thing that the problems of one country would become the problems of the whole euro zone. do we need another Cold War and Marshall Plan to realize that Europe needs to stand united?
we are all inter-connected, so the problems of one country would eventually lead to problems within others even without the euro as the common currency, only with the euro as the common currency we can better help the people in need as opposed to letting their economy and possible investment/development opportunities rot.