Overly optimistic IV...

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Peter Spence at City A.M. replies to Will Hutton's overly optimistic alternative history Guardian article. Both are good and although we all can laugh at the latter, what he writes, albeit hypothetical, may have changed everything and saved us from the 'Credit Crunch'; I doubt it though because the straws loading the camel's back began in earnest in the late nineties. Anyhoo, what I hadn't seen before - and what is very very interesting - was the image left (click to enlarge, it's worth it) that accompanies the City A.M. piece, which shows a number of hypothetical monetary unions and how well their economies could be joined in a union: some are logically good fits but such random groups as economies of countries beginning with the letter "M" and all countries on earth along the latitude line 5th parallel north had more in common than the first 12 members of the euro! What set out to unite will ultimately divide, QED.