> They aren’t really Europeans, and there is no way German, Finnish or Belgian voters will accept yearly handouts counted in billions of euro to Spain, Portugal and Greece. Even as a Brit I feel the pain of my European partners. We have paid a shedload of cash into Europe to be disbursed before the Euro.

I don't disagree that some of the levers of monetary policy are removed by the common currency. If the German chairmakers were so good, would you devalue until the exchange rate was 0dm for 1ps?