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AEIOU

I have just come out of a TV interview. I am often interviewed, mostly by business television channels- CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg and so on. The subject was the question of which states will join the Euro zone in 2007-2008. In principle, Estonia and Lithuania ought to be able to adopt the Euro easily, but there are now big questions. The final, almost throwaway question was: "So what is the difference between the Baltic on the on hand and countries like Austria or Belgium on the other?"

My reply was flippant, but I couldn't help it:

"Austria does not follow Austrian economics. Estonia does"

For non-Austrians: AEIOU was a motto of the Empire: Austriae est imperare orbi universo - "It is Austria's destiny to rule the world" Now adopted used by Austrian-school economists.

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