Paul Krugman:
It [the Euro] was criticized by Thatcherites, who wanted to be free to move Britain in an American direction
Actual Thatcherite*, 1990:
It [the Euro] would also mean that there would have to be enormous transfers of money from one country to another. It would cost us a great deal of money. One reason why some of the poorer countries want it is that they would get those big transfers of money. We are trying to contest that. If we have a single currency or a locked currency, the differences come out substantially in unemployment or vast movements of people from one country to another. Many people who talk about a single currency have never considered its full implications ... When the Delors proposals for economic and monetary union came out, it was said immediately by my right hon. Friend [ Nigel Lawson ] the then Chancellor of the Exchequer that this was not really about monetary policy at all but about a back door to a federal Europe, taking many democratic powers away from democratically elected bodies and giving them to non-elected bodies ... I think that some in Germany—only some—are backing the scheme because they know that the dominant voice, the predominant voice, on any central bank would be the German voice.
*Mrs Thatcher.
UPDATE: In his NYT column, Krugman has modified the claim to --
But it was opposed by British conservatives, who also saw it as a step toward a social-democratic Europe.
That is no more consistent with Maggie's quote.
It [the Euro] was criticized by Thatcherites, who wanted to be free to move Britain in an American direction
Actual Thatcherite*, 1990:
It [the Euro] would also mean that there would have to be enormous transfers of money from one country to another. It would cost us a great deal of money. One reason why some of the poorer countries want it is that they would get those big transfers of money. We are trying to contest that. If we have a single currency or a locked currency, the differences come out substantially in unemployment or vast movements of people from one country to another. Many people who talk about a single currency have never considered its full implications ... When the Delors proposals for economic and monetary union came out, it was said immediately by my right hon. Friend [ Nigel Lawson ] the then Chancellor of the Exchequer that this was not really about monetary policy at all but about a back door to a federal Europe, taking many democratic powers away from democratically elected bodies and giving them to non-elected bodies ... I think that some in Germany—only some—are backing the scheme because they know that the dominant voice, the predominant voice, on any central bank would be the German voice.
*Mrs Thatcher.
UPDATE: In his NYT column, Krugman has modified the claim to --
But it was opposed by British conservatives, who also saw it as a step toward a social-democratic Europe.
That is no more consistent with Maggie's quote.
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