On the currency markets, the euro fell to a new four-year low against the dollar after comments from French Prime Minister Francois Fillon suggested the single currency's weakness was "good news".
French complaints about the strength of the single currency have been rumbling for some time, as the euro has climbed in value against the dollar and Asian currencies.
ECONOMIST: The lessons of German history haunt the single currency
The other members of the eurozone appear as bystanders whilst the French and German leaders determine the fate of their currency.
The effect has been that, to avoid currency risk, its investment would go into French assets, since its liabilities were largely in French francs.
Yet yesterday the Associated Press reported that French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that nations should avoid criticizing the currency policies of others.
Indeed, the recent economic lift-off can be explained in good part by the competitiveness of French exports, caused in turn by the weakness of the new currency.
The thought of sharing their currency with Poles and Estonians may make the Germans and French queasy, but it is hard to see how they can avoid it.
Today saw French President Nicholas Sarkozy advocating for a Tobin Tax, a tax on spot currency conversions as a funding mechanism for development aid.
His global macro view was that the Bank of England would no longer be able to support its own currency and that it would tumble relative to the deutsche mark and French franc.
The French President said the euro's member nations could not even consider allowing the currency to falter.
Will that be a step too far for French voters, who in 1992 approved the Maastricht treaty, leading to the single currency, by only the narrowest of margins?
Besides, despite their hamstringing of Mr Duisenberg, the French still argue, with some merit, that the Germans will have the upper hand over the single currency.
This was a pre-condition for German support for the entire single currency project: there could be no question of the ECB bowing to the whims of the French - or for that matter, the Italians.
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