Anatole Kaletsky takes a look at Gordon Brown’s ‘case’ for the Euro in Today’s London Times:

“Yesterday’s most important revelation was much simpler and more astonishing than any of these. In a section of his preamble which seemed to attract as little attention from the Treasury as it did yesterday in Parliament, Mr Brown revealed the maximum economic benefit that Britain could expect from joining the euro, even if his ideal economic conditions were satisfied:

“Our assessment is that inside the euro UK national income could rise over 30 years by between 5 and 9 per cent, boosting, subject to convergence, potential output by up to one quarter percentage point a year, worth up to £3 billion a year.”

Think about that — £3 billion may sound like a lot of money, but divide it among the 60 million Britons who would be joining the euro and it comes to just £50 a year. Or think about it another way — £3 billion is less than half the increase in National Insurance taxes Mr Brown imposed on the country just this year. It hardly even counts as small change in relation to a £1,000 billion economy. “

Read the whole thing.

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