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The UK has gone the Austerity way because of common sense conservative economics. Reagan/Thatcher revolution and all that.

France is as committed to fixed exchange rates as Germany is. During the previous Great Depression, France was the last Western European country to abandon the gold standard. France precipitated the end of Bretton Woods by sending a warship to Fort Knox to repatriate their gold. For 20 years after Bretton Woods, France preferred a fixed exchange rate system with periodic devaluations to floating exchange rates. French politicians spearheaded the Euro - Germany had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. France allegedly introduced the 3% deficit and 60% debt limits in the Maastricht Treaty, and had no objection to introducing the German prohibition of monetary financing as a bargaining concession to the German sensitivities.

Tell me again how it would all be different if France called the shots?

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 07:57:22 AM EST
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