To some, the euro has seemed liked a safe haven in the course of the current crisis (there are indications that attitudes in both Sweden and Denmark and (maybe) even the UK have warmed a little to signing up for the EU’s single currency) but to others, already caught within it, it’s a straitjacket. One currency does not fit all. These comments from Ireland (via the Daily Telegraph) are well worth noting:

“A leading Irish economist has called on Dublin to threaten withdrawal from the euro unless Europe’s big powers do more to rescue Ireland’s economy. “This is war: countries have to defend themselves,” said David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank. “It is essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. We say, either we default or we pull out of Europe,” he told RTE radio. “If Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected. The credibility of the euro will be badly affected. Then Spain might default, Italy and Greece,” he said. Mr McWilliams, a former UBS director and now prominent broadcaster, has broken the ultimate taboo by evoking threats to precipitate an EMU crisis, which would risk a chain reaction across the eurozone’s southern belt, where yield spreads on state bonds are already flashing warning signals…As yet, there is no public support for withdrawal from the euro. A Quantum poll published by the Irish Independent yesterday found that 97pc reject such a radical move. Three-quarters are in favour of a national government, an idea floated by Unilever’s ex-chief Niall Fitzgerald…Mr McWilliams said EMU was preventing Irish recovery. “The only way we can win this war is by becoming, once again, an export country. We can do what we are doing now, which is to reduce our wages, throw more people on the dole and suffer a long contraction. The other model is what the British are doing. Britain is letting sterling fall so that the problem becomes someone else’s. But we, of course, have ruled this out by our euro membership. “We are paying twice for the euro: once on the exchange rate and once more on the interest rate,” he said. “By keeping with the current policy, the state is ensuring that Ireland turns itself into a large debt-repayment machine. Is this the sort of strategy to win wars? ” he said.”

Now, it’s well worth noting that even the author of this piece (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a journalist not noted for passing up chances to predict economic apocalypse) takes the time to note the high support (97%!) for the euro within the Irish Republic. Nevertheless, this is an early sign of a debate that is, I suspect, coming.

Meanwhile, in parts of Eastern Europe (a region where many countries are on the road to the euro) the ‘debate’ on economic policy is beginning to turn nasty. This report is via the Guardian:

“Eastern Europe is heading for a violent “spring of discontent”, according to experts in the region who fear that the global economic downturn is generating a dangerous popular backlash on the streets…Last week protesters were tear-gassed as they threw rocks at police outside parliament in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in a protest against an austerity package including tax rises and benefit cuts.In Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 people were arrested and at least 30 injured in widespread violence. More than 100 were detained after street battles between security forces and demonstrators in the Latvian capital, Riga. According to the most recent estimates, the economies of some eastern European countries, after posting double-digit growth for nearly a decade, will contract by up to 5% this year, with inflation peaking at more than 13%. Many fear Romania, which joined the European Union with Bulgaria in 2007, may be the next to suffer major breakdowns in public order. ”