Going Into a Single Currency Essays

The Federal Reserve has the dual job of ensuring price stability and maximum employment, which are contradictory objectives. The Feds try to achieve the goals through monetary policy which determines the demand and supply of money by controlling interest rates. The Fed’s goal is to achieve a natural rate of unemployment of more or less 5%. When the actual unemployment figures are below the natural rate of unemployment, inflation increases and there is a high demand of goods and services propelling the economy with the ensuing labor demands and the pressure it places on wages, which in turn produces inflation. When the Fed is faced with this scenario, it must increase the rates to slow the growth and achieve price stability (contractionary cycle).

One of the major benefits of membership in the EU is its strong economy. All members of the EU shares a common market making trade within the EU cheaper and more affordable. According to the CIA World Factbook, The EU has the highest GDP in the world in 2014 with 18.4T

a) A fall in the value of the Australian dollar (AUD) against the U.S. dollar (USD) benefit Billabong in two folds, strengthened price competitiveness and translation advantage. Firstly, the Americas segment accounts for about 50% of Billabong’s sales revenue in 2008 and 2009. (Appx.1) In case of depreciation of AUD against USD, the price of imported surfwear to the U.S. in terms of USD will decrease. The US importers demand more for Billabong’s products. The sales increases from the strengthened price competitiveness. Secondly, when Billabong received payment from the importers, it will translated back into AUD for use in Australia. As AUD depreciate, the receipt in USD can be translated into more AUD than before, bringing

These changes will in turn make companies more competitive, expand markets for businesses, as well as increase trade across borders. However, most importantly the euro is intended to create financial market stability within the participating countries. By eliminating the movements of exchange rate and all reference to them, the European Central Bank will control interest rates and inflation. This will lead to less uncertainty and create new opportunities for success.

What the Euro experience has taught us is that even countries which are not vastly different from each other in terms of economic health, can face a phenomenal crisis within just 10 years of the creation of the single union. How then would you expect a global currency encompassing countries with vastly different structures, in vastly different stages of growth and using vastly different means of managing their economies to be stable?

As of 2012, only seventeen of members of the European Union have decided to use Euros as their currency. In order for the members that adopted the Euro as their currency to successfully help their economic problems, the Eurozone members had to follow strict instructions put into place the European Union. The strict policies included strict control over inflation, government debt, and long-term interest rates (Mckee 525). The union put these strict policies into place to give the union the tools that it needed to take in order to help fix the economic crisis in each country participating in the Eurozone. Without the full cooperation of each country, it could cause the plans to fix the economic crisis within each country to fail because of the different interests by each individual country.

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE ASSIGNMENT 2 _ Answer Key PROBLEM I (30 points) Suppose the quarterly (90-day) interest rate in the US is 2.5% and it is 4% in Canada. If the $/CD spot exchange rate is $0.80/CD and the 90-day forward exchange rate between US and Canadian dollars is $0.79/CD , does the interest rate parity (IRP) hold? Why or why not? If it does not hold, what is the direction of the capital flow?

The EU sought to simplify trade within European neighbors and to replace national currencies with a single shared currency that could compete with the dollar on the global stage. The members of the newly-formed European Union agreed to a fixed currency conversion rate when the Euro was adopted (Scheller). Initially, the EU only had 11 members, but membership has since grown to 25 member nations. These 25 member countries operate within what is called the Eurozone, over which the European Central Bank sets economic policy

There’s a new currency gaining prominence in American culture; it’s the currency of offense. This currency is based on the perceived value of victimization and people buy, sell and trade with it every day. The pictures on the bills change with the daily news. This particular currency uses the leverage of impugned guilt, and promises gratifying profits in the form of entitlements, forced cultural acceptance and indignation.

Whether the United Kingdom decides to join the European single currency and replace the pound with the euro will have profound economic as well as political effects on the country so is a very important decision and has considerable variations in attitudes towards the topic, although the British public opinion has consistently opposed joining the euro. The euro is currency shared by 18 of the European Union's Member States. The euro was introduced in 1999 and automatically became the new official currency of 11 States, followed by another 7 countries joining to date. However, the UK negotiated an opt-out to from the Treaty meaning they don’t have to adopt the common currency as they fit a certain criteria [1]. Joining the European single currency can have major advantages for the UK, such as diminished uncertainty of exchange rate for businesses and the decreased need to pay transaction costs of changing currencies when abroad. It can also have disadvantages such as loss of domestic monetary policy and variable rate debt in the UK.

Though my understanding of currency exchange is very limited, I believe that it was beneficial for El Salvador to adopt the US dollar as their official form of currency. As CNN’s article states, millions of dollars were sent to banks to familiarize themselves with green backs, so it is not as though the shift was unexpected or ill warned. With their economy already being familiar with our currency, taking in an average of “$4 million a day” alone from Salvadorans living in the US, there does not seem to be anything that would seemingly set the country back as far as making the shift to dollars. I can see the change posing a potential issue for those that may not be familiar with the new currency. In cases of internal financial crisis there might be issues for Salvadorans preferring the native colon as they might not know how to make change or exchange for green backs. Even so, I feel as though overall this decision is beneficial for El Salvador.

     In the present day, the world's economy is ever-changing and adjusting. Many different reasons control the reasons for this. The future of currency is something that can only be predicted and is not guaranteed. However, there are many determing factors behind the changes that can take place. Asia and North America are two continents that have economies that have recently changed or are in the midst of change.

Once in a lifetime a family might make one large purchase or transaction across a European border such as buying a holiday home or a piece of furniture. A single currency would help that transaction pass smoothly. Likewise, “businesses would no longer have to pay hedging costs which they do today in order to insure themselves against the threat of currency fluctuations. Businesses, involved in commercial transactions in different member states, would no longer have to face administrative costs of accounting for the changes of currencies, plus the time involved. It is estimated that the currency cost of exports to small companies is 10 times the cost to the multi-nationals, who offset sales against purchases and can command the best rates”[1]. A single currency in the EU should overall result in lower interest rates as all member European states would be locking into German monetary credibility. The stability pact (the main points of which were agreed at the Dublin summit of European heads of state or government in December 1996) will force EU countries into a system of fiscal responsibility which will enhance the Euro's international credibility. This should lead to more investment, more jobs and lower mortgages.

There are many problems facing the European Union, banking crisis, the declining in intra-European solidarity and growth crisis. Specific businesses have increased their prices in some European countries faster than the other countries, which caused the euro to become less competitive; if the euro was cracked and some countries changed to their own currency then they would be able to lower their exchange rates. This would make their goods reasonably priced for the rest of Europe.

Exchange rate represents the external value of a currency. Changes in exchange rates may affect the relative position of a country in the international trade. Politicians and economists concern about exchange rate variability for lots of reasons, among which that the exchange rate variability discourages trade comes first. However, a large empirical literature on this issue does not confirm a significant effect of exchange rate on the volume of trade [1]. Instead other variables such as employment should be much more important from a practical point of view, for it is closely related to people’s livelihood.