Notwithstanding the failure of regulation and the blanket bank guarantee, was joining the euro our fatal mistake? Despite the fact that our two biggest trading partners were the UK and the US we surrendered our currency and control of interest rates knowing that the ECB would set monetary policy to suit Germany and France.
Surely if we had stayed out of the euro the credit boom and the housing bubble would have been smaller and even if/when FF managed to scuttle the economy the IMF, when not saddled with ECB concerns about the euro, wouldn't have forced us to socialise private bank debt nor guarantee private bond holders and wouldn't have charged us a crippling interest rate.
I know the above is simplistic but is it wrong?
Surely if we had stayed out of the euro the credit boom and the housing bubble would have been smaller and even if/when FF managed to scuttle the economy the IMF, when not saddled with ECB concerns about the euro, wouldn't have forced us to socialise private bank debt nor guarantee private bond holders and wouldn't have charged us a crippling interest rate.
I know the above is simplistic but is it wrong?
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