Joining the Club

The financial crisis is causing some countries to reconsider their opposition to adopting the euro. As this article notes, even Denmark, which twice rejected membership in referendums are now considering a third try. The experience of currency crises in Iceland, Hungary and Poland are causing governments in those countries to try to push towards the euro. What good is monetary sovereignty when you have to go the IMF for emergency funds to save your currency?

As one Polish economist noted: “'When there’s a threat, find God,’ goes the proverb in Poland,” said Rafal Antczak, an economist at Warsaw University. “And that is what has happened.” Substitute the euro for God.