"If you think the speculators can't get at the
countries within EMU, think again. It won't be long before our derivatives
geniuses dream up a new synthetic currency. Where there is motive, there
will always be opportunity."
The quotation is from a speech on the Psychology of Risk, Speculation and Fraud, at a conference on the Future of European Monetary Union in Amsterdam. |
For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire most of Europe has a single, common currency. The US dollar faces the first challenge to its hegemony since it displaced the British pound sterling as the world's most important currency after the First World War. However, if the Euro is to assume a wider role it will have to flourish in its own continent and survive challenges to the stability of European economies first.