For many in Britain, the apparent death throes of the single currency allow a smug sense of “we told you so”. The present crisis was as predictable as it is familiar. In every particular, it provides validation for the view Britain adopted nearly 20 years ago when it was ignominiously forced out of the ERM – namely that it’s tough, if not impossible, to sustain a currency union with Germany. To survive in such a union, your economy has to become ultra-competitive; you cannot rely on devaluation to do the work for you. Yet however competitive you are, somehow or other Germany always manages to stay a couple of steps ... (full story)