Do Politicians Make Too Much Fuss About Currencies?
The Needs Of People
I travel extensively across Europe and after trips like my Home Run From Krakow or my Home Run From Stockholm, I end up with a walletful of assorted zlotys, crowns etc.
But it won’t always be like that, as increasingly contactless cards and smartphones will take over from cash. How long will it be before a lot of public transport in the world uses the London model, where you just touch and go?
So I suspect cash will become very much a method of payment that will not bother visitors.
Other developments will also help.
1. Using Coins
Vending machines, toilets, left luggage lockers and other places that need small cash payments will get intelligent and probably respond to the local currency and a selection of others, like one and two euros, pound coins and dollar quarters.
So a visitor to Europe, would just make sure they topped up their one euro coins.
2. No-Commission on Credit Cards When Used Abroad
The credit card I use abroad, is a Nationwide Select Credit Card and this page on their web site, describes its use abroad. And so far, they’ve done what it says on the tin.
As the card was recommended by one of the Personal Finance Experts on the BBC, it can’t be that much of a con.
All credit cards should be like this!
3. Late Rooms et al.
On my trip to Poland, I used lateroom.com to book accomodation and some of the hotels were paid in zlotys. But I paid in advance in Pounds Sterling.
All of these systems are giving both the seller and the purchaser a bill in the currency they want.
Summing Up The Needs Of People
All people want is a system that buys that drink, meal or rents that room or sun lounger giving them a good rate with no hassle.
The Needs of Business
When it comes to business, I’ve just paid two overseas bills using SWIFT from my Nationwide account. I got charged £20 for each one, which was a bit steep in my view, but these days you can transfer money pretty easily.
The Greedy Bankers
So I come to the conclusion, that on a small transaction basis and that probably means anything under a couple of grand, transactions should be possible on what we have today.
Just look at what you can do with PayPal and an eMail address.
But would greedy bankers and their friends in Central Banks allow multi-currency transactions to become the norm for money transfer between consenting adults or companies?
The Innovators
Just look at how finance has changed in the last few years.
Nothing is cast in stone and who’s to say what will be the financial flavour of 2016.
Every problem is an opportunity for an innovator. And this type of disruptive innovation often hurts established players!
Summing Up The Needs Of Business
A business just wants money transferred to a client or supplier at the best rate instantly, for the lowest possible commission.
So Who Needs A Single Currency?
The only advantage of a single currency like the euro or the dollar, is that you know easily what you are paying and that accounts and paperwork are simpler.
Politicians also say it creates jobs as it encourages industries like tourism.
It may do, but the UK gets masses of tourists and not being in the Eurozone doesn’t seem to be a problem. Visitors are happy to use their credit cards or prepay for everything in their own currency, so it probably illustrates that if you have a good product, then the tourists and money will roll in.
I think it is probably true to say that politicians also like a single currency as it’s a big idea, with which they might leave their mark on history.
I was probably in favour of a single currency for Europe at one time, but I think now, that so many innovations will get round the rules and create lots of jobs, that it is rather an outdated concept.
I much prefer a simple process that allows me to spend pounds everywhere with the best exchange rate and no commission.
In some ways this will be an unrealistic idea, as politicians will protect their useless banks.
But they will have to legislate a ban to stop it.
Remember that politicians don’t understand new technology. Look at the mess they;re all in over Uber.
Will Nick Clegg Become A European Union Commisioner?
A lecturer in politics at Sheffield Hallam University has just said that Nick Clegg will be the next European Union Commisioner.
The BBC says that the lecturer has form for getting things right.
It sounds like a good idea to me and I think it will happen!
The Two Big Election Issues The Politicians Aren’t Addressing
The tragedy unfolding off the Libya coast, where hundreds are dying every day as they try to get to Europe is impossible to solve.
We can’t say it’s an Italian problem and put our heads in the sand, as most politicians seem to be doing. Especially, as it seems most of the migrants want to get to Northern Europe and often the UK, where the jobs are.
Suppose we just said that none of these migrants would be let into the UK, as probably the Ukippers would say. How long would it be before the rest of Europe applied policies to get us to accept our fair share?
If on the other hand, we took a selective number, then this would signal to those organising the trade, that there was a good chance you may get residence in the UK.
I haven’t a clue what you do! And neither have the politicians!
I do have some sympathy though for the migrants as three hundred years ago, my two closest male lines; one Jewish and one Huguenot, were welcomed in this country, after escaping from persecution. One was probably a tailor and the other was an engraver, so all they brought was their brains and skills. I don’t know about the Huguenot, but the Jew was probably single and converted to Christianity within a few years, so he could find a lady and get married. My two close female lines are both internal migrants from Devon and Northants. London has always been a magnet for migrants, so nothing has changed.
There is also the problem of Greece going bust, which could happen before our General Election.
It could be argued that it is nothing to do with us, as we’re outside the Euro zone!
But then we have a strong economy and a country where there are a lot of Greeks.
Certainly, if I was a Greek engineer living in Athens with a cousin in London, my savings would have been long gone.
I do wonder how much of the Greek bailout money ended up safely invested outside of Greece.
So we may not lose money, but we are probably going to suffer some collateral damage. Especially, if the various financial institutions want their money back!
It will not be as serious a problem as the Libyan migrants, but where are the politicians heads on this one?
Deep in the sand!
European Train Booking Is Going Backwards
I am only a simple man, but I do know what computer software can do. And often it’s very complicated and works well!
In this post, I describe how I meandered all the way from East London to Yeovil using several trains. What complicated things was that I wanted to go via Littlehampton to see a Thomas Heatherwick-designed cafe. But I ended up with a complicated route from National Rail’s web site and I bought the tickets without difficulty.
So you’d think that if we navigate round our maze of lines in the South of England, then buying a ticket to most major cities in Europe should be a single transaction.
With Paris and Brussels it’s easy, if you go to the Eurostar web site and you just pick your train, pay your fee and then print the ticket.
I have a friend, who I see regularly, who lives near Lausanne. It’s a seven hour journey with a seventy minute change in Paris, so it’s not a short journey, but buying a ticket on Eurostar is as easy as buying one for Paris. Eurostar’s web site, also tells you how to get across Paris.
It’s pretty easy too, to buy a walk-up ticket for Paris in say Geneva and I’ve done it a couple of times.
As it’s a long journey back to Blighty, I usually give myself a couple of hours in Paris to have a good lunch or dinner before taking the Eurostar home. No-one in London, makes crepes like Cafe Breizh
But basically, getting to and from Switzerland by train, is as easy as going say from London to Inverness.
Let’s suppose that you want to go somewhere closer than Switzerland, like The Hague. Obviously, as Switzerland isn’t in the EU and The Hague is, you’d think that the Dutch capital would be the easier journey to book.
But whereas you can book to most large Swiss cities,you can’t book to The Hague.
A few years back, I booked a Eurostar ticket to Any Dutch Station. But this was discontinued!
Now you have to buy a ticket to Rotterdam and then fight your way through the Dutch ticketing system to get to The Hague. Five years ago it was much better.
Buying tickets to places like Berlin and Munich, is not much better either.
If the French, Belgians and the Swiss can get it right and probably up to the same standard as our system, why can’t Dutch and the Germans? The Dutch were even more integrated five years ago!
I’m sure if the best of the British, French and the Swiss had been put in charge of developing a full system for Europe, you’d be able to login to Eurostar, type in any station in Europe and get given a choice of routes, for you to select one.
No wonder the management of the EU is in such a mess!
Should We Nuke Russia?
The title of this post is not a serious question in the way you think it is.
I was thinking about how we control Russia in its expansion into Ukraine and wondered how much gas we buy from the country. Google found me this article on the Forbes web site. It has the title of Nukes Best Option Against Russian Gas. It however did give some interesting facts about Russia and its gas, particularly with respect to the sale of the gas. The article contained the answer that I wanted in this sentence.
Russia gets about €300 billion a year (US$417 billion/yr) from fuel exports to Europe, almost 20% of its GDP
So it looks like that by its policies and purchases, the EU is strongly supporting Russia. The article also contained these paragraphs.
It is unfortunate that Germany closed down almost half of their nuclear plants in the wake of Fukushima, 8 out of 17. Nukes really come in handy during this kind of energy conflict. It would behoove Germany to rethink that decision and to postpone their plans to shut down the remaining nuclear plants over the next ten years, to give them more leverage to address the Russian aggression as they continue transitioning to alternatives.
Until recently, Germany’s 17 nuclear plants produced power exceeding the energy produced by all of the Russian gas entering Germany. With eight shut down, the amount of nuclear energy produced still offsets much of that produced by Russian gas. If Germany insists on prematurely shutting the rest of its nuclear fleet, then the amount of gas needing to be imported into the country will double, even with projected increases in renewables.
This explains the title of the article.
The writer has a point. Whether we like it or not, Europe and especially Germany is playing the Russian’s game, by buying more gas and giving Putin the funds to be aggressive.
The sooner we stop buying gas from Russia the better. We need to start fracking and build more nuclear power stations.
The EU Gives The UK Another £300million A Year
I’m just reading the BBC’s prediction for tomorrow’s Budget. Under the section on VAT, there is this information.
The Budget should enact important changes to the payment of VAT on internet purchases and downloads.
Buyers, for instance of e-books, will now have to pay the VAT rate of their home country, not that of a retailer such as Amazon.
It charges just 3% VAT, the rate in its home territory – Luxembourg.
From 1 January 2015 it will have to charge UK purchasers the 20% British VAT rate – and then hand that money over to the UK government.
It will mean higher charges for some UK internet shoppers who use a foreign service, and it will raise about £300m more each year for the Treasury.
This is an EU-wide change affecting all 28 member countries and will remove the price advantage of some internet retailers based outside the UK.
So due to some EU legislation, you’ll pay more for e-books from Amazon, but then the VAT rules will be fairer and the government will get more tax revenue and hopefully allow UK companies to compete easier.
Is this the start of getting the big multi-nationals to pay their full moral level of taxes, like we plebs do?
I certainly hope so!
One Down To BT Sport
A friend, who has Sky, missed his team; Sheffield United. win the FA Cup today, as the match was on BT Sport.
All of these channels must get their act together, so we can all watch our favourite sport.
It would be nice if all matches were available through the Internet on a dedicated UK Football portal. But that would probably be illegal under EU Law.
But then what does the EU know about football and technology?
A More Colourful Railway
Travelling all over Europe, as I have been recently, when you get on British Trains, you nothing how there is more colour everywhere. Watford Junction shown here, isn’t that bright in the rain, but there’s more colour and texture, than I’ve seen in Europe. Look at the dramatic, but colourless station in Liege.
A More Colourful Railway
The flowers at Watford seemed to be a bit down, but you’ll see lots of flowers on British stations. I can’t really remember them in Europe.
This also extends to metros and subways, where I don’t think I saw anything as bright as London’s, red, white and blue.
Hollande In Cloud-Cuckoo Land
This story from the BBC is entitled, “Euro crisis is over, says France’s Francois Hollande”
I can hear Bud Flanagan singing a new version of the Dad’s Army theme song call “Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hollande?”
It might be true to say that the crisis with the Euro is over, But the crisis with some of the countries in the Euro-zone certainly isn’t!
I Don’t Dip In Olive Oil Anyway
This piece of EU legislation reported on the BBC must be the silliest. Here’s the first paragraph.
The European Commission is to ban the use of refillable bottles and dipping bowls of olive oil at restaurant tables from next year.
From 1 January 2014, restaurants may only serve olive oil in tamper-proof packaging, labelled to EU standards.
The Commission, the EU’s executive branch, says the move will protect consumers and improve hygiene.
It won’t improve my hygiene, as I’ve never anything in dipped olive oil and as very few places serve gluten-free bread, it will affect me about as much as the EU saying restaurants couldn’t use light blue tablecloths.
It’s ideas like this that mean UKIP and the other silly parties all over Europe prosper.
Let’s have some serious legislation that says that all restaurants must have a gluten free policy, shown on the menu.
The Anonymous Widower 