The euro is doomed because it was an incredibly stupid idea in the first place

However, let’s look behind the political posturing and ask ourselves whether, in economic terms, the euro was a sensible idea. The structure we need to help us decide is Robert Mundell’s concept of an Optimum Currency Area. We should look at things like language barriers, labour mobility, capital, the similarity between economies, their reaction to external shocks – essentially what has been worked out for us in that chart.

And, as you can see, it’s a blitheringly stupid idea to try and push countries into the same currency just because they happen to be next door to each other. People would have been better off if we’d insisted that the c. 1800 Ottoman Empire had the same currency again: Tunisia, Turkey, Israel and Greece. Which is a real indication of how dumb it was to try and get Greece and Germany into the same currency…

Look at that chart again. The UK and its English speaking offshoots: the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and so on. They make up a more logical single currency area than the eurozone. The euro was and is an insane economic idea balanced on the nonsense upon stilts of a very silly indeed political ideal.