Seriously, no doubt the euro is going to be important, but unless the Europeans become more internationalist than they have been, the euro mya just go the route of the yen. It will tie its value to the dollar instead of setting a separate currency standard. At the end of the day, all wealth will still be counted in dollars. This is the reason why the US is arguing against the need for a new international financial architecture. Read Sakakibara's speech of January 22, 1999: The end of Market Fundamentalism.
Henry
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Henry C.K. Liu wrote:
>
> >The problem with the euro is that it is now an alternative currency only in
> >concept. There are not enough euros to really threaten the US dollar. Any
> >central banker who will put his reserves in equal distribution between euros,
> >yens and dollars will not hold his job by the end of the week. Same with
> >corporate CFOs.
> >
> >The size advantage of the dollar market is going to be around for at least a
> >decade, and maybe for the foreseeable future.
>
> Maybe. But, not to be a vulgar marginalist or anything, but what happens at
> the margin is important, and the growth of the euro market is the new thing
> happening at the margin. And, within three years, national currencies in
> the eurozone will cease to exist and gigantic bond and stock markets
> denominated in euros will be the inevitable result. To paraphrase Michael
> Milken, who said that an entity with an AAA credit rating had only one way
> to go, down, the dollar's market share has only one way to go too.
>
> Doug