Founder of the Euro says 'catastrophic' currency will self-destruct!

As more and more countries within the European Union struggle economically, the euro - the union's common currency - becomes more embattled, with its founder now even predicting its demise. German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine, who was responsible the euro's development and launch, is now calling for the end of the single currency in order to let southern Europe recover. He says if not, the current fiscal course is "leading to disaster."

"The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt," he said, according to the Telegraph, one of Britain's largest dailies. "The Germans have not yet realized that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later," he said, adding that much of the current fiscal crisis has come in large part from Germany's squeeze on wages, in order to gain export share.

For his part, Lafontaine said he backs EMU but just doesn't think it is sustainable.

"Hopes that the creation of the euro would force rational economic behavior on all sides were in vain," he said, noting that the policy of forcing Spain, Portugal, and Greece to carry out internal devaluations was a "catastrophe." The economies of those three nations, plus Ireland and Holland, are among the EU's worst.

The euro has been in decline for months now, and as nations of the EU continue to deal with high unemployment and high government spending due to over promising of benefits and lower revenues, there doesn't seem to be a future for the currency, much less the EU as a viable entity, experts believe.

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