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Wish fulfillment?

Ambrose Evans Pritchard, the business columnist of the Daily Telegraph has an agenda: he does not support the Euro.

Fair enough.

He writes a lot about the problems he sees with the currency

Also, fair enough.

His latest story on the subject is that Germans are now no longer accepting Euro notes with serial numbers that show that they are printed in Latin countries like Spain (prefix letter V) or Italy (prefix letter S), and are swapping these for notes with the German prefix X.

If true, then this is extremely serious, since it implies that German consumers might refuse to accept non-German notes and that would effectively end the currency union.

The trouble is, I can find no other reference to this behaviour anywhere. Wherever I have looked, the single reference for the story is the story itself and nothing else.

Has Evans Pritchard just printed a story that he would like to be true? If so he has committed the cardinal crime of any journalist.

He must give a source for this story, because the consequences are critical and I am not sure I believe him.

Evans Pritchard's credibility is on the line.

UPDATE: I have continued to look, and the only evidence has been anecdotal and can find no corroberation beyond what has been posted below for Ambrose Evans Pritchard's story.

If not total fiction, to print the story as Pritchard has done is highly misleading. It may be actionable under the false rumours section of the FSA.

I will not accept abusive posts- especially from Anonymous posters.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Credibility on the line?? You just need to follow the links in his wikipedia entry to his Clinton "reporting" to suspect he was always more conspiraloon than correspondent.
3:38 pm
Nick said…
I can remember when the Euro was launched there was a story going round about a German city that had given it up and had gone back to using the Mark, but no one could ever say which actual city it was. This story seems to have been cut from the same cloth.
10:23 am
Anonymous said…
Could this be the source?

Not entirely sure (it's in German!), but it looks like it could be the report Pritchard is referring to.
2:18 pm
Anonymous said…
Translated, the part of the linked article that suggests this:

"...Bankers report that here and there customers with an unusual desire come closer to it. When disbursements in cash they ask for notes with German land marking..."

Exaggerated by Pritchard, maybe. Fiction, no.
2:21 pm
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
11:38 pm
Anonymous said…
Lemme see your homework diary, Cic. Ill help you out here:


The page.


The Google-translated page.


A Google search that will bring it right up, out of the box.

Accusing a professional jourmalist of fabrication is a serious business, sportsman. If I were you I'd retract, and pronto. Or I'd consult my solicitor.
5:50 am
Anonymous said…
I bought a sandwich in Dundalk about a year ago. The shopkeeper wouldn't take a Spanish Euro coin. I was in a hurry, and I kinda liked the idea anyway, so I just dug out an Irish one instead.
6:00 am
Anonymous said…
Further to Ian_qt and Thon Brocket, the Handelsblatt article says in the first line: "Es geht um eine kleine Minderheit. Man muss sie Exoten nennen." ie "This is about a small minority. They are best called exotic.". So, not sure this is a good basis on which to write a long article in the Evening Standard on how terrible things are with the Euro. Why are people picking on Spain, anyway? Spanish banks suffered the least in the crunch...
4:15 pm
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