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Testing times
Spectator, The, Jun 7, 2003 by Fildes, Christopher
Monday brings the results of the Famous Five tests for the pound and the euro, so of course they have been leaked and counter-leaked: four fails, we are told or, as the euro's well-wishers put it, two fails and two near misses - and one pass. This is the fourth test: the effect on the City. No doubt it could cope, inside the euro or out.
Indeed, since the euro was launched, the City has coped in good style, dealing in the new currency just as it dealt in the dollar. No more has been heard from the prophets who warned us that if we were not in the curozone from the beginning, we would lose all our business to Paris and Frankfurt, grass would grow in Cornhill and Canary Wharf would moult. I agree with David Lascelles that the threat to the City goes deeper: 'There lurks behind the euro a potentially hostile culture: one that is fundamentally suspicious of markets, that prefers to keep people like City traders and corporate financiers under control, and that views the Anglo-Saxon model as a potential threat.' Testing, testing.
Copyright Spectator Jun 7, 2003
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