Top economist apologizes for euro remarks

Coen Teulings, professor of Economy, trivialized the worth of a CPB investigation which states that the euro has produced an average weekly salary for the citizen on Saturday in the weekend supplement from the Telegraaf. His remarks led to fierce criticism from politics and economists alike, Nieuwsuur reports. Teulings said that there are few economic advantages that the euro offers. Up to last year, Teulings was the head of the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). His comments appeared on the front page of the weekend Telegraaf. Now, Teulings apologizes for his hasty dismissal of the euro, and that he wrongly estimated the advantages for the Dutch citizen. His comments led economists and economists to criticize Teulings. "Most research suggests that you can also reach the advantages without one currency. The euro had especially a political symbolic meaning." Lex Hoogduin, ex-director at DNB, calls Teulings' remarks "double wrong." In his eyes, the CPB research was "absurd" at the time already, trying to calculate what the euro has produced for citizens. "And now Teulings says that the products are nearly nothing, and I don't agree with that either." Teulings is against a euro-exit because this would lead to substantial costs and has unknown political consequences in Europe. According to him, the time has passed for the Netherlands to step out of the euro. Only Cyprus might still manage this. Further, Teulings believes "that we don't sufficiently realize that the euro is a sign of hope for our Eastern-European countries such as Estonia and Poland." "It is a one-way ticket", Teulings says. "The euro is like Hotel California: you can get it, but you can't get out." Teulings "doesn't believe a word of it that if this project fails, that we then continue just as cheerfully with cooperation on the area of trade."