The case for abandoning the euro - at least for now

BACK in the early 1970s, when the euro was still a gleam in the eye of its European founding fathers and I was an economics writer with The Times of London, I was looked at askance when I dared to ask Eurocrats what would happen if a euro-area country needed to devalue its currency.

At that time, The Times' economics editor was Peter Jay, at whose bidding I posed the question at various briefings. He was firmly opposed to the idea of monetary union in Europe in the absence of fiscal union, and some still believe that he could eventually be proved right.

Those reading the Financial Times last week might have seen the letter penned there by Mr Jay (who now lives in retirement near Oxford rather than in Washington, where he had served as Britain's ambassador) and some may have experienced a sense of deja vu.