BREAKING UP THE EURO

An idea to properly break up the eurozone won the Wolfson Economic Prize yesterday. The paper was floated by Roger Bootle of Capital Economics. Bootle's plan, titled Leaving the Euro, a Practical Guide, outlines how a country would leave the eurozone whle limiting disruption to wages, currcney valuation and inflation. The plan enables a nation to issue new currency, one for one against the euro, while quickly announcing a strict program to manage inflation to ensure fiscal discipline. It also entails issuing inflation-linked government bonds to balance the budget. That plan may indeed come to fruition if the current environment subsists for long. The euro currency dropped to its lowest level in a month against the USD after the ECB's rate decision. It marked a second drop in two days for the 17-nation common currency.