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Liga Norda Minister: Bring Back the Lira

Earlier in the session the euro came under heavy selling pressure after calls from an Italian minister for the country to re-adopt the lira in parallel with the euro. In an interview with the daily La Repubblica, Welfare Minister and member of the euro-sceptic Northern League party, Roberto Maroni said Italy should consider introducing a […]

Earlier in the session the euro came under heavy selling pressure after

calls from an Italian minister for the country to re-adopt the lira in parallel with the euro.

In an interview with the daily La Repubblica, Welfare Minister and member of the euro-sceptic Northern League party, Roberto Maroni said Italy should consider introducing a temporary dual circulation of the euro and the lira.

He said the introduction of the euro has not been an adequate measure to tackle an economic slowdown and a decline in competitiveness in Italy.

Though analysts noted that it may be unsurprising for a member of a far-right party to make such comments, they come in the midst of market jitters on the subject. ~Forbes

At first sight, the report of any Italian government minister calling for a return to the lira would seem bizarre, given all of the Euro-agitprop that all eurozone countries with absurdly inflated currencies, such as Italy had, were thrilled to have at last a real currency. Naturally, a Northern League minister is not exactly representative of most Italians, alas, but it is telling about doubts in Italian government circles that he would feel secure enough in his position to say such a thing.

Unfortunately, the strength of the euro has been its undoing in those countries, just as it has participated in slowing down economic growth throughout the eurozone. I can say with some satisfaction that I foresaw the failure of the euro occurring in just this way when it was first introduced. While writing for my college newspaper five years ago, I observed that the new currency would be bolstered in its early days because of its political inspiration, the ECB would keep it artificially high to lend it credibility so as to compete with the dollar in foreign reserves, and consequently the eurozone, which desperately needs more liquidity, among other things, would stagnate and stall. This was manifestly not in the American interest for two reasons: one, obviously, was the weakening of the dollar, and the other was the negative knock-on effect of European slowdown, as we do so much of our business with Europe that slow growth or recession in Europe gradually drags us down as well.

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