Ziemowit
25 Mar 2010
Law / Kaczyński doubts the Euro currency will survive [49]
I strongly doubt that euro will be abandoned altogether, nevertheless I was shocked when the case of nearly-bankrupt Greece emerged. This is a case demonstrating that the concept of "trust" is understood differently in different European countries. What I mean is in fact a certain opposition between "northern" and "southern" Europe, or to put it another way between the "protestant" and the "Latin or Catholic" Europe, with the UK, the Benelux, Germany and Scandinavia being in the former, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece in the latter (France in between perhaps). The CEB bankers now say of Greece: 'we couldn't have supposed they would be cheating us', and I am inclined to believe them as they indeed would have never assumed the Dutch or the Swedish could have been cheating them, so they thought the same of the Greeks.
The line between "northerners" and "southerners" in Europe cannot, of course, be very precise. But there is something in it within this case of the euro crisis. I remember my English teacher telling me her experience with other students in her classes in London where she used to learn English in an international group of people. Their British teacher used to remind the Spanish students of the group: Tomorrow the lesson starts at 10. And listen, you Spanish people, when I say at 10, I mean at 10, not a quarter past ten or at half past 10! Where is Poland in that division between "north" and "south"? I'd say somewhere in between, though since the time of the currency reform by Mr. Grabski in 1924, and thanks to the financial reform of Mr. Balcerowicz later on, I'd say Poland is closer to the "north" than to the "south" of Europe in terms of public finances and the central banking thing.
I strongly doubt that euro will be abandoned altogether, nevertheless I was shocked when the case of nearly-bankrupt Greece emerged. This is a case demonstrating that the concept of "trust" is understood differently in different European countries. What I mean is in fact a certain opposition between "northern" and "southern" Europe, or to put it another way between the "protestant" and the "Latin or Catholic" Europe, with the UK, the Benelux, Germany and Scandinavia being in the former, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece in the latter (France in between perhaps). The CEB bankers now say of Greece: 'we couldn't have supposed they would be cheating us', and I am inclined to believe them as they indeed would have never assumed the Dutch or the Swedish could have been cheating them, so they thought the same of the Greeks.
The line between "northerners" and "southerners" in Europe cannot, of course, be very precise. But there is something in it within this case of the euro crisis. I remember my English teacher telling me her experience with other students in her classes in London where she used to learn English in an international group of people. Their British teacher used to remind the Spanish students of the group: Tomorrow the lesson starts at 10. And listen, you Spanish people, when I say at 10, I mean at 10, not a quarter past ten or at half past 10! Where is Poland in that division between "north" and "south"? I'd say somewhere in between, though since the time of the currency reform by Mr. Grabski in 1924, and thanks to the financial reform of Mr. Balcerowicz later on, I'd say Poland is closer to the "north" than to the "south" of Europe in terms of public finances and the central banking thing.