Euro = bad(?)

This chart, via Paul Krugman's blg, makes for fascinating look at the flaws of the Euro.  GIPS stands for Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Germany got all the benefits of the Euro at the expense of the GIPS countries (and others), by making German goods cheaper and GIPS products more expensive.  It created a deficit in the budgets of GIPS countries.

Because the sole currency is the Euro, there is no ability to rebalance the cost differential between two nations, other than to lower the standard of living in GIPS.  That's what's going on in Greece in particular, as Germany (and others) require Greece to agree to austerity measures.

If you want to see how the US was affected by this same sort of thinking, all you have to look at, is US-China trade.  Because China exerts strong control over its currency, we might as well assume the US and China are using a single currency.  The artificially low prices of Chinese goods creates an outflow of American capital, lowering the money our government receives in taxes, while boosting China's economy and standard of living.