3 ms·
> With all due respect to Croatia and the lovely people that live there, they cannot compete globally with Germany in any interesting export market. > The typi
by dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
> With all due respect to Croatia and the lovely people that live there, they cannot compete globally with Germany in any interesting export market.
> The typical tool that a nation uses to deal with that reality is the relative value of their currency.
The typical tool they use is product pricing. Why devalue the savings and assets of Croatians who don't participate in exports?
The irony of your claim is that Croatians use the euro as a store of value in preference to the kuna because of the (perceived) vulnerability of the kuna to devaluation, or even elimination. They've lived through several wars and attendant changes in sovereignty were bank savings were simply wiped out or the old currency was severely devalued in a forced exchange.
People tend to bring up this "important tool" but ignore that by itself it's of little value (see Italy for instance: so many devaluations, still a fiscal basket case) and ignore the severe impact devaluations have on the income as assets of people who have worked hard and done nothing to deserve the haircuts they recieve in currency devaluations. More often it's used as a tool to avoid economic reforms (again Italy).
- foobarian 4y ago> Croatians use the euro as a store of value in preference to the kuna Not only that, but they have used the German Mark before in favor of the dinar. And dollars as well in seafaring regions. There are pop songs from the 80s made about this. [1] Pop the lyrics into Google Translate Croatian --> English: https://cuspajz.com/tekstovi-pjesama/pjesma/djurdjica-barlovic-milicevic/dosla-marka-dinaru-na-more.html https://cuspajz.com/tekstovi-pjesama/pjesma/djurdjica-barlov... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfzjPrWO5o&ab_channel=DekySimper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfzjPrWO5o&ab_channel=DekyS...
- jq-r 4y agoIn reality, Croatians never stored too much value in money (be it kuna or euro, or deutch mark), they've stored it in real estate. Why? Because taxes are one of the highest in the world, and in return people get next to nothing. So instead they've built houses (usually by themselves), especially on the coast and islands so they could rent them. Real estate is like a big piggy bank. This has it's own set of problems nowadays though.