There is always a tension between having a common means of exchange, a useful and good thing, and having to have the same interest rate, the same external currency conversion rate, not necessarily a good thing.

FORBES: Yes, We Did Know the Euro Was Going To Fail

Already, many French banks and Dutch and Spanish ones put the final balance on people's bank statements in euros, working on a rough conversion: the exact exchange rate for each currency will be fixed on January 1st 1999.

ECONOMIST: Befuddled in Euroland