[gaspar]

As long as the strong countries (e.g. Germany) control the value of Euro then countries like the size of Greece will be always in trouble. I am Greek and the biggest mistake that we made was to enter the Eurozone. Euro is good only for very strong countries, but even those countries can have problems sometimes. A very good example is Finland and Sweden. The former has problems because of Euro but the latter thrives because they control their currency. And Greece may not produce cars for example, but our agriculture is strong. Because of the globalization though every country nowadays relies on other countries. See for example Iran's problems because of the sanctions. Iran is huge compare to Greece and they don't even have to import gas, but their economy on the other hand is weak.

[Zirro]

"A very good example is Finland and Sweden. The former has problems because of Euro but the latter thrives because they control their currency."

There are several reasons for this - many of which are likely more important than the Euro - such as Finland having relied mainly on the declining paper industry and Nokia for exports while Swedish exports are more diverse.

[zurn]

That's the beauty of having your own floating currency though. Independent of what the problem is, your trade balance evens out automatically. If a country's forestry exports tank, imports will become more expensive and exports will become more competitive though currency depreciation. And people will eat more domestic cheese vs imported, stimulating domestic demand.

[samstave]

Aside from going to school for economics, what do I read to grok this concept much better?

[collyw]

Nokia are Finnish though.