The constraints that the Euro places on European policy described and decried by your editorial writer yesterday (Greece's troubles reveal fatal flaws in the Euro, Boston Globe, May 6, 2010)are exactly the same as the constraints placed upon the regions and states of the United States by our acceptance of the US dollar as a common currency.
Without the dollar, Massachusetts could try to solve it's budget problems by devaluing its currency thereby reducing imports from other states and increasing exports to those states.
Alas, other states would probably reciprocate or add tariff barriers thereby making both Massachusetts and the rest of the country less well off. This is what would happen in Europe absent the Euro's constraints.
We should be glad that the Euro provides those constraints and hope that the unified currency will survive the current stresses and strains and survive, like the dollar, for many centuries.
Sent to the Boston Globe
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