| Login or register so that you can make a comment. | No thats wrong   roneypinto, Albufeira, 12 December 2011 12:57 pm |
Chris Plumb
Watch those serial numbers!
As the eurozone crisis lurched through this “make or break” week, we spoke to a moneyman who believes a return to national currencies is the only answer. Chris Plumb, 56, worked in money markets for 24 years. He’s been watching events in Europe and claims that “if Portugal remains under Germany’s thumb” austerity will drag on miserably for another decade. “There’ll be no growth” and eventually the nation will cease to exist as a sovereign power. But there’s more: as Greece looks increasingly likely to abandon the Euro whatever happens in Brussels this week, he tells us Euro notes printed in Greece are already being vetoed by German shop-keepers.
Natasha Donn, Edition 707 ( 8 Dec 2011), 
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What do you mean? Aren’t Euro notes part of a common currency?
Chris Plumb: They are meant to be, you’re right – but confidence in the currency is beginning to decline. Quite a few shopkeepers in Germany won’t accept Y-notes anymore. Y-notes are printed in Greece. The Y refers to the serial number in the top right hand corner of notes. This is how things will go. The more problems that each country gets into, the more people will refuse to handle banknotes from that particular country.
Where do you find out which letters refer to which countries?
It’s all freely available on the Internet, thanks to Wikileaks. But, for the moment, it’s just the Y-notes you need to worry about – particularly as it looks certain that Greece will be leaving the Euro in 2012. What I’m saying is that if you’re selling a car, and someone wants to buy it for cash, you need to check the money before you accept it. If you see a lot of Y-notes, the best thing is to insist that the person exchanges the notes at the bank for X-notes. They’re the ones printed in Germany.
What about situations where people have money stashed away at home? Portugal is a nation used to keeping money under the mattress...
Well, I’d say that was a very bad idea! People may well be hoarding notes that’ll be worth nothing in a few months time…
Why do you think a return to national currencies is the only answer?
Because nations are losing the power to decide what is best for them. Think about it: when did you last hear from any of the other 15 member states? All we ever hear are the words of Merkel and Sarkozy! We have to think about the kind of future people want in Portugal. Do they want their children to have prospects – or do they simply want to sign up for another 10 years of austerity, with zero long-term plans for economic growth? The government has already shot itself in the foot by increasing IVA on restaurants and golf and authorising tolls on the Via do Infante. Year-round tourism will now be a reality of the past. People will take their trade elsewhere. If Portugal continues being dictated to in this way, it simply won’t survive. We’ll wake up one day part of the United States of Europe!
But noises coming out of Brussels suggest an agreement over the crisis may be in sight.
The news changes constantly – and ultimately it won’t be the politicians who decide anyway. It will be the market – the world’s investors, OPEC countries, several of the larger hedge funds: they’ll decide collectively on whether whatever the politicians come up with is workable or not.
Why didn’t anyone see this coming?
They did! I hate to say it but that’s precisely why Britain never got into the Euro! Britain wanted details of how the system would work in times of stress clearly set out prior to accepting loss of sovereignty over its currency and the setting of interest rates. But European countries were so keen to introduce the system that nobody really questioned or worried about the possible pitfalls. And now everyone is paying dearly for that lack of foresight…
