Freitag, 17. April 2015

O is for Ökonomie

photo care of Forbes magazine
So for the K post, I had the unpronounceable consociationalism, and now we've got an "ö." If you don't know how to pronounce this letter, just say "ay" or "day," and while leaving the inside of your mouth the same, tighten your lips into an o shape.  And now on to the oekonomie.
We already talked about Bank security in the B entry, so that's that economic box ticked.
Here's something that friends of mine who are traveling in Europe and then come to visit me sometimes forget: we're not on the Euro. No sir. It comes to a vote fairly regularly, and the Swiss seem pretty darned sure that they do not want to be in the EU or use the Euro. And yet....
Hitler called Switzerland a little porcupine because it's sat in the middle of Europe with it's spikes set in it's surrounding countries and was in the way of the path to so many other European countries. ("Die Schweiz, das kleine Stachelschwein, das nehmen wir im Ruckzug ein.") Switzerland is a small island in a big ol' Euro-using sea. It may not use the Euro itself, but when the Euro tanks, so does Swiss trade. So this winter, Switzerland had to do some stuff (called dirty floating) to make sure that the Franc didn't stay too strong against the Euro.
So we've got our pretty money with swiss innovators on it, but we're still controlled by the Euro.


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