JEO18 Aug 2011 17:33
Outlook
In recent months, as first Ireland, then Portugal and Greece, have been bailed
out by their European partners - and others - rather than be allowed to default
(with potentially damaging consequences for the euro and the Eurozone), many
column inches have been devoted to whether or not the European Community and its
currency will survive, and if so, in what form. History tells us that currency
unions have been tried before. In Europe we had the Snake, the European Monetary
System (EMS), and the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) - where are they now? By
contrast Bismarck founded the Reichsbank in 1875 to provide a common currency
across all the German states, and his creation survived hyperinflation and two
world wars and became the stolid and trustworthy Bundesbank - but thereafter
Germany adopted the euro. The CFA franc zone, which includes the former French
colonies of West and Central Africa, started life in 1945 and still exists. By
contrast the Latin Monetary Union (LMU), another French initiative covering
France, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, lasted for much of the nineteenth
century but failed when some members, notably the Papal State, began to debase
their currency.
Your Company has in general eschewed investment in the weakest of the European
periphery members, and will continue to invest in outstanding companies with
worldwide franchises and first-class managements, as it has done successfully
hitherto.