Word: euros
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Europe's single currency has come of age early. The euro turns 10 on Jan. 1, a milestone for one of the most powerful symbols of European identity. It has already endured a rite of passage over the past few months, as the global financial crisis battered European markets yet failed to fluster the euro. And, like any debutante, it has its suitors: a string of countries lining up to dump their national currencies and join the euro zone...
...euro zone is now 15 members large and has a combined population of about 320 million. However, many more people are directly affected by the currency, from would-be members whose money is already pegged to it, to countries like Montenegro and Kosovo, whose effective national currency is the euro. France's former African colonies also peg their common currency to Europe's. That means about 500 million people rely on the euro or euro-pegged currencies...
...while some Czechs may be flushed with pride, President Vaclav Klaus is not, and that has officials in Brussels riled. The Czech leader, a Euro skeptic in the best of times, has refused to fly the E.U. flag over public buildings like Prague Castle, saying it reminds him of the days when his country was made to fly the Soviet flag. Outgoing E.U. president Nicolas Sarkozy of France called that stance an "outrage" and a "wound," while European Commission president José Manuel Barroso said anyone comparing the E.U. with the Soviet Union "doesn't understand what the Soviet Union...
...just because the current Czech government is led by Euro skeptics doesn't mean they might not have good ideas. "The Czech government could rise to the challenge nonetheless," says Hugo Brady, from the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank. "As a small country, it is used to making deals, so it knows about the art of compromise...
...money. One visionary, Jean-Francois Noubel, co-founder of AOL-France, foresees "millions of free currencies circulating on the Net and through our cell phones" as money follows the distribution path that media have over the past decade. Bernard Lietaer, a Belgian economist and author who helped develop the euro, has proposed the Terra, a transnational currency backed by established commodities that would coexist with conventional notes, the monetary equivalent of Esperanto...