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My country, Sweden, is soon about to vote whether to join EMU and switch to EURO or to stick with our current currency.

I have NO idea what to vote for so i'd really appreciate some comments/insight from fellow pulsarians who have joined EMU and switched to EURO.
Thanks all in advance!

I don't live at all in the Euro zone, but from my experiences with it, I'd say go for it. I'm not sure of the long term effects, but it was nice to be able to compare prices between, say Finland, Spain, etc. with ease. Especially helpfull when comparing the price of 1 beer in a club!

But of course, that's just my very limited perspective as a traveler so you'd probably want to pay mor attention to people who actually live in the euro zone. A standard shouldn't hurt anyway, I think.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2003-05-22 01:37 ]</font>

No problems so far
Of course, the first year was..hmmm..how to say... always had to calculate the sums in old currency
But the benefits are obvious. I'm not a professional in business or finance so I can't say anything about it's "bigger" influences or so... but as a consumer - as Ken said - it's nice when I'm able to compare prices and I need not exchange money when travelling.
As you are you so close to us, go for euro!
(Although you beat us in ice hockey )

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: spoimala on 2003-05-22 02:11 ]</font>

this is ww3 being fought for real.as of now, ALL international trade is in dollars.the only way for a country to cash in those dollars is to buy u.s. government bonds.this is how the u.s. government is really financed.the euro is the only real threat to u.s. economic hegemony.the idea is to create a more powerful currency by linking all the emu economies to make one super economy....

it's doubtful if it really matters to the guy on the street as he will still be a pawn in this game.be assured that some will grow rich and some will suffer.

this currency(the euro)is a direct factor in many world events today.sadaam's final sin against the u.s. was to demand payment for oil in euros,starting other countries like china to suggest that trading in euros might be a good idea.obviously that would kill the u.s. economy....

ah well,one currency's as good as another,although if the emu should falter,individual member countries might not feel the effects so directly if they were running their own currency.conversely,pooling currency allows sharing the group strength when things are a little shakey at home......

well,i entertained myself,sorry i couldn't give you something more substantial.......

Nothing to add to gary's nonchalant analysis. Correct.
I love to go to italy or france or whatever and not having to change the currency. On arrival I'm ready and no hassle the last day: is it too much left over/not enough/how much more. Ok, my pocket then is full of coins with Coliseum instead of Brandenburg Gate on flipside. Oh, well...
BTW: irish harp is best!

On 2003-05-22 02:10, spoimala wrote:
.....
(Although you beat us in ice hockey )

yeah, well that comeback from 5-0 to 5-6 almost felt embarrassing.
seems that if Finland would have played for 6-0 the game would have been over for us. but....

Anyway, how about the market? my fear is that the market will round their prices up a notch while our employers will round it down? i mean less salary and higher prices. any truth in that speculation?

yeah, well that comeback from 5-0 to 5-6 almost felt embarrassing.

It was from 5-1 but it's all the same. If only I were on the ice that wouldn't have happened (never played ice hockey really)

Anyway, how about the market? my fear is that the market will round their prices up a notch while our employers will round it down? i mean less salary and higher prices. any truth in that speculation?

In Finland, I haven't seen any final analysis, but some prices got up, while others down. It depends on the exchange rate.
Usually, prices are something that feel comfortable. Let me explain.
One euro is 5.9something old finnish marks. So, when the price of something was 50FIM, it's now 10EUR, so, it really got a lot more expensive!
Naturally, there are opposite examples. Somebody rounded differently.
Of course, this is only about things you pay in cash (and things that they advertise on round prices). Salaries and things like that remained untouched (only tiny roundings).

About international market.. as gary said, EURO is becoming more and more powerful. It's already so powerful, that it's making harm to us

All these different currencies are..sick I'd say. Immense game about rates etc. I'd like if world had only one currency that's the same for everybody. Of course, it should have a name that is not euro neither dollar

That market change has certainly been the way in spain (according to a friend). Salaries went down, and the prices are noticably higher.

In terms of the general economic market, the more people in the Euro (in general, certainly sweden is one of these) the better the EU will be: stronger, more stable etc. If you look at the market trends, the Euro has steadily gained on the dollar, pound and yen over the last few months. Because it is a big trading zone, strength shouldn't be a bad thing (i.e. less need to export outside the currency, but cheaper prices on imports . . .)

All in all I think it is a good idea - I am certainly hoping the UK will join (but they won't !)

In terms of the dollar / euro scenario, I can only see it as a good thing if american economic control is decreased, and it does look as if the euro will be the currency to do it.

Iraq was definitely a strong warning to anyone wanting to deal in euros ! But america just can't do that to china or russia - they are clutching at straws, to be honest, and actually forging the path to their own economic decline, which is ironic, given their intentions.

i'm not an economist, so i don't know how to judge the euro from a political or economical point of view.
BUT with the euro i can buy from italy at http://www.ebay.de in germany, where prices are much lower and you can find a lot of good deals!

most prices on German eBay are up about 30% since the Euro.
Everything else too - to find a Euro price (as a seller) divide the old price by 2, add 30% and the round to the next 49/98 number
Seems to take a lot of time to get used to the new 'value' but it will all settle sooner or later. I hope there's some improvement in 'common' sense developing by this.

cheers, Tom

In Gernamny they call it the "Teuro", wich is an abreviation of "expensive" and "euro".

I am from Denmark. I am proud to be out of the Euro. Main reason = the meetings are too closed. Nothing gets out before many years has past. In US the time of silence is much shorter.

On 2003-05-22 09:18, astroman wrote:
most prices on German eBay are up about 30% since the Euro.

damn, if only i'd found ebay.de before!!
but still, for me german ebay prices are MUCH lower than in italy... it's very strange!

Everything else too - to find a Euro price (as a seller) divide the old price by 2, add 30% and the round to the next 49/98 number

this is true also in italy. we were very unfortunate, because 1 euro is equal to 1936.27 old italian liras.
and what once cost 1.000 liras (take for example - but not correclty! - a coffe at the bar) now costs 1 euro... we have mulitplied a lot of our prices (expecially in bar or in the pubs you go on night...) by 2...

Well, the only view from the southern hemisphere is that "Euro" is an ugly and completely meaningless word. To me a "Euro" sounds like something a cow coughs up when its sick.

I was hoping it'd be called a "Crown". Far more dignity and a nod to the colourful past. But such a term is too controversial I suppose

Now, let me tell you about the rise and rise of the south Pacific powerhouse, the Aussie Dollar !

in sweden, denmark and norway the currency is called "krona" or "krone" = Crown.
i think there would have been some prestige issues in some bigger countries if the new european currency were to be named after ours...
at least "euro" sounds a lot better than "ecu" which was the first project name.
to be pronounced "eckyy".
my o my...

Sib wrote:
so how's the € working for you?

the € isn't working for me, it's me who's working for the €.

_________________
Let There Be Music!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2003-05-27 18:14 ]</font>

hubird

Siberiansun, wasn't the ecu thing a different story...? Anyway, IMHO it would sound a lot better than euro. Actually, many people in Finland call it 'ecu'. And it has many nicknames also...
Anyway, vote 'yes' for the euro: as you may know, the stock exchanges of Finland and Sweden are about to join together. If they had a common currency, it would help a lot

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: spoimala on 2003-05-28 03:25 ]</font>