June 20, 2005
WHAT'S THE POINT?:
Northern League launch campaign to revive lira (Lisbeth Kirk, 20.06.2005, EU Observer)
The Italian Northern League party launched a campaign to revive the lira at an 85,000-strong rally of its supporters on Sunday (19 June)The party, which holds minister posts in Silvio Berlusoni's government, called for a revival of the lira as a "parallel currency" to the euro, which would remain the currency of the state budget, tourism and foreign trade.
Only the Italians could come up with something worse than the euro itself. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 20, 2005 7:25 AM
Probably true. But it would give Italians better control of their economy (rather than Brussels). And it would probably be the hole in the dike that leads to the Euro falling apart.
Posted by: AWW at June 20, 2005 7:47 AMHow would it give the Italians better control of their economy, except for a better ability to create lira inflation? The "control" they won would be destructive.
If these were competing currencies, and the motive were tighter money in the lira than the Euro, there might be something to it. But a loose-money lira is not going to be patronized by anyone but the government, and here they say even the government won't accept it.
Posted by: pj at June 20, 2005 8:39 AMIf Padania got its independence as the Northern League wishes, an independent nation run from Milan,using the lira as its currency would be the richest country in Europe.
Posted by: bart at June 20, 2005 9:20 AMFor about an hour.
Posted by: oj at June 20, 2005 9:53 AMPJ - I was thinking the lira would be separate from the euro, not a parallel as is being suggested. My point was that the one size fits all practice of the ECB isn't working and that some countries need lower rates to try and stimulate their economies which they can't get right now from the ECB.
Posted by: AWW at June 20, 2005 10:35 AMLombardy, Friuli and the Veneto have been subsidizing the rest of Italy since WWI. The Northern League wants that to stop and realizes that because the Mezzogiorno has all the votes, it can vote itself benefits from the public trough not unlike American welfare recipients in big cities.
OJ, there is a great big world outside the Eastern Time Zone. You really should try to get out more.
Posted by: bart at June 20, 2005 2:13 PMIt's a dump
Posted by: oj at June 20, 2005 2:25 PMRemember, everything outside of the Eastern Time Zone is a dump, by definition. I just wish New Hampshire would go on one of those half-hour timeszones like Newfoundland. Or better yet, go back to Sun Time so each little town could have it's own little timezone.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at June 20, 2005 3:24 PMPJ running their own currency would give the Italians the ability not to be chocked to death to support the French and the Germans.
OJ: Bart, mirabile dictu, is correct. Italy was assembled in the 19th century out of some very disparate parts. Disassembling it would not be a bad thing.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 20, 2005 4:59 PMIs there any country in the world you guys aren't looking forward to breaking up? Just remember, if history is any guide, you'll be the ones paying the bills.
Posted by: Peter B at June 21, 2005 7:33 AMBermuda
Posted by: oj at June 21, 2005 8:26 AMAndorra.
Posted by: Dave W. at June 21, 2005 1:51 PMAndorra! slowly i turned, inch by inch...
Posted by: cjm at June 21, 2005 6:35 PMPeter,
There is no good reason to maintain the borders of dead empires, merely because they were always there. A Europe where places like Catalonia, Brittany, Alsace, the Tirol, and the Basque region were all separate states makes more sense than the current version. Certainly, the Velvet Divorce between the Czechs and Slovaks provides a template.
Attempts to keep pseudo-nations together like Bosnia or Iraq only resort in unnecessary bloodshed.
And Sub-Saharan Africa should simply agree to have all its boundaries erased and redrawn on tribal lines.
Posted by: bart at June 21, 2005 7:40 PM