This was my finest hour

10 Jan, 2017 at 19:50 | Posted in Politics & Society | Comments Off on This was my finest hour

In September 2003, Swedish citizens were asked if they wanted to join the eurozone. Of the more than 80 % of registered voters participating in the referendum close to 57 % said NO.

Yours truly participated actively in the fight against the euro — and it’s still something I’m immensely proud of.

New figures from Eurostat shows that the unemployment rate in many of the eurozone countries are still in double digits. This is of course totally and utterly unacceptable. Unemployment is not only an immense economic waste. It is also a cause of poverty. In a civilised society, everyone should have the right to work. The kind of austerity policies that the euro forces many countries to pursue, counteracts the goal of a full-employment society.

The celebrated optimism of traditional economic theory, which has led to economists being looked upon as Candides, who, having left this world for the cultivation of their gardens, teach that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds provided we will let it well alone, is also to be traced, I think, to their having neglected to take account of the drag on prosperity which can be exercised by an insufficiency of effective demand.

John Maynard Keynes

Looking around in euro-land today one has to ask oneself: How much whipping can democracy take? How many more are going to get seriously hurt and ruined before we end this madness and put the euro where it belongs – in the dustbin of history!