Europe without the Euro?

[Albion]

How would the breakup of the Euro affect Europe and Europe's credibility on the world stage? Do you support a breakup of the Euro and what would you see replace it, a two tier Euro, the old currencies?
And what of the Euro as a reserve currency? Do you think a replacement to the Euro, maybe even a new Deutsch Mark could act as a major reserve currency?

[Äike]

Losing the euro would strongly weaken Europe when compared to the USA and China. If anyone should lose the euro, then the best solution is to throw out Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal from the euro zone.

[antonio]

Euro fueled the modern speculative economy that sicken our countries. On twenty different currencies, big fishes would not operate so well, black capitals had been better controlled, and EU states (as a whole or separately) could concertate re or devaluations on behalf of people's interests.

[Albion]

Losing the euro would strongly weaken Europe when compared to the USA and China.

That's one of my main concerns. Europe could have a collection of relatively strong currencies without the Euro but nothing to compete with the dollar, or in the future the currencies of the upcoming powers.
However a part of me wants to see it go for economic and nationalistic reasons, economic because it creates a domino effect with weak economies toppling one by one and for nationalistic reasons because I'd simply like to see the Germanic nations back with their own strong currencies again

[Loki]

Losing the euro would strongly weaken Europe when compared to the USA and China. If anyone should lose the euro, then the best solution is to throw out Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal from the euro zone.

If you take Germany out of the equation, the euro means nothing. Therefore, Germany's post-euro currency is likely to be just as strong as the euro, if not more. In fact, it should be far more stable than the euro. Germany's economy is robust and without debt. A new Deutsche Mark would be very popular.

[Albion]

If you take Germany out of the equation, the euro means nothing. Therefore, Germany's post-euro currency is likely to be just as strong as the euro, if not more. In fact, it should be far more stable than the euro. Germany's economy is robust and without debt. A new Deutsche Mark would be very popular.

That is true, the whole thing is built around German productivity. A pan-Germanic currency would be better than the Euro Or simply the individual currencies back again.

[Äike]

If you take Germany out of the equation, the euro means nothing. Therefore, Germany's post-euro currency is likely to be just as strong as the euro, if not more. In fact, it should be far more stable than the euro. Germany's economy is robust and without debt. A new Deutsche Mark would be very popular.

Germany has debt... Most countries in the EU do, only Estonia has a very small percentage of debt because of superb Estonian politicians.

Also, countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and of course, Estonia are also doing quite fine. The only difference is that their economies aren't big enough to match Germany.

The economies in the north are tied together, in some way. Estonia's main business partners are Sweden and Finland. If there's a steep economic downturn in Finland or Sweden, then it will affect us. If the same thing happens in Estonia, then it slightly affects Finland and Sweden.

[Svanhild]

The current Eurozone is like a second Versailles for Germany. Ongoing payment slavery. We have to pick up the tab of the southern PIIGS countries who have a different/weaker economy and an incompatible working ethos.

If Germany reintroduces the Deutsche Mark, the Eurozone would break apart: The dirty business doesn't run without the main bill payer. As a matter of fact, the new DM would heavily upvaluate with respect to the international markets who would invest in DM as soon as possible. Our DM would become a powerful currency with highest international credit, replacing the crippled Dollar from the top. Granted, this would make our exports a bit more expensive but the other side of the medal is that our imports would become cheaper: We could buy import goods and raw materials like oil and energy at a lower prize. This would strengthen our consumption rate and our national economy further. The higher export prizes would be negligible, only 40% of our exports go to other Eurozone countries.

Either we reintroduce the DM or we could create a monetary union with countries who think alike and share the same working ethos, the almost same culture and the same conception of economics. A Germanic monetary union could be a good solution, extended by closely related countries like Finnland or Estonia. I'd imagine a monetary union of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Estonia could work and grow to a strong factor. Norway, Switzerland and Iceland could join later if they want to. It would be important to hold out England and France of the monetary union. Both of these countries always want to play the first fiddle although they can't compete with Germany's economic power. The inclusion of GB or France would complicate the union. France isn't a Germanic country and could play the first fiddle in a Southern/Romance monetary union. They could call their currency "Fiesta" or "Siesta" which describes their working ethos pretty well. By continuous devaluation of their currency they could regain economic power and better credits.

[Albion]

The current Eurozone is like a second Versailles for Germany. Ongoing payment slavery. We have to pick up the tab of the southern PIIGS countries who have a different/weaker economy and an incompatible working ethos.

Indeed, its been startlingly obvious for years.

If Germany reintroduces the Deutsche Mark, the Eurozone would break apart: The dirty business doesn't run without the main bill payer.

France couldn't and wouldn't anyway keep a Euro going by itself, the whole think works off the key player, Germany.
If Germany declared that it would bring back the Deutsche Mark tomorrow I'd be happy for them, Germany could be a lot better-off with its own currency back. There was never any need for the Euro in Germany anyway, I remember the Deutsche Mark as being a particularly powerful currency as it was.
Germany needs to put the Germans first, it needs to leave the Euro and focus on its own economy, employment and people.

As a matter of fact, the new DM would heavily upvaluate with respect to the international markets who would invest in DM as soon as possible. Our DM would become a powerful currency with highest international credit, replacing the crippled Dollar from the top.

I'm not sure about replacing the dollar, but it would be up there in the top three at the very least.

It would be important to hold out England and France of the monetary union.

I was think that also, at least how it is at the moment. With the UK's (and England's) economy not being in great state it would suffer from joining such a currency. Even then though once the economy recovers as you say it would just be a contest between Germany, the UK and France.
The UK has a large internal market, that would suffer from a currency which the UK had limited control over. Manufacturing and exports need to be boosted to help the UK economy and being in economic union with Germany wouldn't really help that I don't think.

France isn't a Germanic country and could play the first fiddle in a Southern/Romance monetary union. They could call their currency "Fiesta" or "Siesta" which describes their working ethos pretty well. By continuous devaluation of their currency they could regain economic power and better credits.

Doesn't siesta mean something like "Mid-afternoon nap" in English? Yeah, that describes it well.

[safinator]

If Euro currency collapses, it will not solve any problem of a country. Even if each country of Eurozone returns to own currency, the problems like debt will remain. On top of it, it would be economically very expensive, since it will also lead to collapse of the bilateral trade among Euroblock. The drop of international trade would hit hard especially Germany that is depended on the export and its large conglomerates will get hit particularly hard and its banks lend money to many other countries outside of Eurozone. It would be hard to collect these money on default currency back. It is estimated that Eastern Europe and Russia alone owns 1Trillion Euro debt that is predominately held by the wealthiest countries of EU.
If Eurozone collapses, so it will its common projects that were funded by common currency. The defense project, Airbus, the Space program, the pharmaceutical and science research will all disappear and with it entire industries. Plus the large agricultural sector that benefits France and Italy will be stuck with overproduction. So I strongly believe that collapse of the Euro would and will lead to collapse of EU as whole and with it entire idea of integration of the Continent. Since EU is the largest economic block in there world, its collapse will bring the rest of the world into recession and countries that depend on investment from EU (Eastern Europe, Africa, South America) will suffer.