Euro Still Backed, though Backed against the Wall

Consumers and Merchants still want a common currency, even though currently it looks as if the currency will fail, or will not fail to take down the Eurozone, starting with Greece and Italy, with Spain and Portugal to follow.

What have been the advantages of a common currency?

The cost of converting currencies from banks and salesman form one country to another has been eliminated.

Tourism is easier to conduct, since travelers can voyage throughout the continent with one currency and avoid the nasty fees and outrageous interests rates which have hindered commerce and purchasing power.

One wine-seller in the sleepy Loire valley claimed that he could expand his business throughout the Eurozone by relying on one common currency.

Then again, supporting and enforcing this one currency has proven to cause great problems along national and international lines. One central bank beholden to no one member state has either thrown the Eurozone into chronic disrespect among its member states, who refuse to maintain a manageable level of debt and practice adequate fiscal responsibility. Hence the current Euro-crisis gripping the Mediterranean and threatening to take down Germany and France, the strongest members of the Eurozone.

Merchant and consumers still back the Euro, but the Euro is now backed against the wall, struggling to hold onto any respectable currency in the Eurozone and throughout the world.