A currency of your choice
Sir: Mr Samuel Brittan (Books, 4 Novem- ber) writes a book review to express his case for a single European currency, but a European monetary system need not be a monopolistic imposition of a single curren- cy. The late Prof. E.A. von Hayek, in an TEA booklet called Denationalisation of Money, proposed an alternative: competing currencies. This, as I see it, would forbid discrimination between any two of its cur- rencies. Any bank's customer would have the right to open an account in an EC cur- rency of his choice. Discrimination by gov- ernments would be eliminated by giving a person accountable for tax the right to pay it in any EU currency of his choice. Gov- ernments and their central banks would continue to compete with other govern- ments and central banks through differ- ences in inflation and interest rates.
Lord Lawson, as Chancellor, proposed competing currencies to the EU, whose members in their ignorance rejected it without even considering it. Mr Brittan, too, omitted to mention that very relevant fact.
D.E. Folkes
5 Queens Walk, Ealing, London W5
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