Whistler's mantra
I ENJOY watching the Financial Times's efforts as it whistles to keep the euro's spir- its up. It has had a busy few days. When Europe's single currency was launched, the FT took success for granted. This must be what its readers, especially in the new euro- zone, wanted to hear. So its correspondents started cabling victories, and the front of the paper was graced with a weekly chart: `The progress of the euro'. As the chart shows, the euro has made steady regress, and the FT's correspondents now report Japanese car-makers suffering under ster- ling's yoke. When Toyota said that it would like to pay some of its bills in euros, the FT splashed the story, telling us that it would increase the pressure on the government to join the euro. As the FT must know, Toyota is entirely free to pay its bills in sweet- papers if it can get its suppliers to accept them, without forcing the rest of us to join a sweet-shop. Still, passing lightly over Honda's plans to make more cars in Swin- don and export them to Japan, the FT was in tune again this week, trailing on its front page a large feature article called 'Spinning off euro success — a model to many devel- oping countries.' No doubt countries with currencies such as the Vietnamese dong have much to learn from the euro. The Irish punt, too, except that Ireland signed up for the euro and has now caught a sharp dose of inflation. Keep whistling.
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