Quote from alekk:
@Morganist: thank you very much for your answer. I am totally new to economics, so may I ask you some more questions as I think I have not understood your answers:
What will cost more ?
Are you talking about the national debt of the UK. Isn't it very similar to many other countries in the Eurozone: debt of France,Germany ~ 70% of GDP, Italia has a national debt that is more than 100% of its GDP, etc ...
What do you mean here? Does the UK make a lot of money on the forex market ?
again, sorry again for these surely very stupid questions.
there is a cost to be in the eu it will grow if we enter. i don't know the ins and outs you will have to go to the bruges group they have the figures. it costs something like forty million a day at the moment.
in relation to the single interest rate. there is one interest rate for the whole euro zone. this means more highly in debt countries will be more affected by an interest rate alteration than others. we have. seventy percent of the private debt for the entire eu. also we buy houses and our economy is geared for that so an interest alteration will have a greater affect on our entire economy. the uk economy depends on peoples perception of wealth to sustain consumption the higher the value of the house the poorer they feel the less they spend. in france they rent more so interest rate alterations do not have the same affect on consumption.
this paper is the guidelines that have to be followed to set the interest rate in the euro.
http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/other/gendoc2008en.pdf
it is different in the uk we follow one you can find at the bank of england site. they are different frameworks to set the interest rate and different procedures.
i was supposed to write a paper for the bruges group about it but to do that i would have to discredit the interest rate itself. look at the paper at the seven techniques they use we use five at the moment the main three are the reserve requirement, open market operation and the discount flow window.
the last point. the uk makes something like seventy percent of the worlds forex trades (probably more). so if the pound no longer exists i don't know how it will be affected. i think it is one of only things in the country that makes money now and perhaps why govs protect the financial services sector, which is enormous. so this is the problem do we know how this will be affected.
one thing i do know if people are not changing from pounds, which is international exchange it will mean a lot of lost business. we could also see our purchasing power diminish as a result of using the euro and because we are a net importer it is not good. however some people say it will help because the euro is taking the place of the dollar (which is declining rapidly) so will be stronger than the pound. the trend over the last decade would indicate that look at the appreciation of the euro against the pound.
also note when italy joined the euro the quality of life changed for the worse. this may happen in the uk. also note some people believe we will prop up the small states and end up being worse off. there are other problems too. first will we be powerful in the eu currently the germans have the clowt and we do what they say. the french ignore everything they are told to do and the italians have other problems. other problems consist of the outer european migration into the eu. which is argued again but some same it could affect economically either badly or well.
hope that clears it up. i will be back in the forum in about 12 hours so i will reply then if you need further help.