28 NOVEMBER 1998, Page 32

. . . they should worry

STILL, people like him yearn to shorten their worry lists. Booking a place in the euro will help them, they imagine. Many of them and their companies wanted the govern- ment of the day to join the euro's predeces- sor, the exchange rate mechanism, which would save them from having to think about rates of exchange within Europe. It gave them other things to think about, new uncertainties and hideous realities. Some of those highly paid decision-makers might have thought that out. You will sometimes hear it said that markets dislike uncertainty, too. If there were no uncertainty there would be no markets, just as if every race were a walkover there would be no betting, and if business were easier — a maxim of my father's — more people would be in it.