Euro demise in my lifetime?

When I was appearing on radio in Dubai, I made a throwaway comment one day which took on a life of its own.

I said, quite casually, that I believed that I would live longer than the Euro.

That remark followed me around and still does!

I still believe this to be the case despite the pullback from the brink which happened during the debt crisis.

Germany punished a number of smaller economies in particular Cyprus and this kept the other struggling countries like Italy Spain and Ireland in line.

Nothing much has changed since those days. Germany is now going to have to act politically tough in a similar way to it did economically.

However, Germany is weaker internally than it was with Merkel under pressure over her “open door” immigration policy. Germans are concerned and a lurch to the Right cannot be ruled out. This would send shivers through Europe and weaken Germany within the EU.

Joerg Meuthen, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said yesterday that the Eurozone should be split into two clusters; a strong cluster centred on Germany and a weaker cluster including France.

If France is in the weaker cluster, I would suggest that Germany may find itself alone in the stronger one! Apparently, they will be grouped with Austria, The Netherlands and Finland.

The euro is a seed of discord in Europe that has different currency cultures and different competitiveness levels," Meuthen said.

One size does not it all and the economies of those countries used to high inflation and high interest rates (like Italy) continue to struggle under the yoke of the Bundesbank (sorry I meant ECB).

It is clear that the experiment is failing and the fabric that held it together is fraying. Brexit will not help despite the U.K. not being part of the Euro their influence will be missed despite what the likes of Jean Claude Junker may say.