Professor Kerber's opposition to Euro Transfer Zone

The Christian Science Monitor this morning has an article on the dangers of the coming Euro Transfer Region, linked here, which quotes Professor Kerber (the subject of detailed comment on this blog yesterday) as follows: "German guilt has been turned into too much money over too many years," says Markus Kerber, a professor of finance at Berlin Technical University. "But this is over. All of a sudden Germans are grasping the figures."

While many people here believe Germany had no choice but to help Greece to avoid a broader European collapse, others now think Berlin might withdraw from the eurozone. One option would be for it to link up with other, more prosperous, neighbors. "The Dutch and the Austrians are fundamentally in the same situation," says Kerber. "They don't want to see the monetary union turn into a transfer union."

A friend paid me a small sum owed in euros over the weekend, unhappily the 100 Euro note carries an X at the front of the serial number, indicating it was issued in Germany. I will hang on to the note to see what problems I have to go through to redeem the money in France should Germany now take the totally logical next step and depart from the euro alongside its non-deficit strapped neighbours! The euro is reported to be rallying this morning on news Kuwait and China are not about to dump the currency. Well they would say that wouldn't they? Only the financially moronic (or perhaps capitalism loathing closet-marxist), Gordon Brown would pre-announce large-scale sales of a commodity. If only the UK had Brown's cheaply sold gold today!