Sir, - I am so fed up with Herb Meyer (October 26th) and all the anti-euro lobby viewing the bottle as half-empty. The euro is correctly valued; it's the pound sterling and the US dollar that are over-valued. Any businessman who buys from the euro zone and sells to the US or UK is laughing. The people most affected by the lower exchange rate of the euro are American businesses, British businesses and international banks and dealers. Who cares? If you are a German, Portuguese or Irish person selling goods and services into the US and the UK, your prices are 25 per cent lower than they were two years ago.
I am one of the many people who, from the mid-1970s through to the 1990s saw about eight currency devaluations and mortgage interest rates rising from 4 per cent to 23 per cent. Now, for the first time in a lifetime, I see monetary stability and I think that the time is here for everyone to leave their nationalistic hats at home and embrace the new currency. . .or go live in America. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Gibbons, Munig, Skibbereen, Co Cork.