Back in 1979, Europe launched what was called the Exchange Rate Mechanism, or ERM.
In 1992 sterling's humiliating ejection from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism did for John Major.
Mike German asked whether the First Minister would be in favour of Wales joining an exchange rate mechanism.
Sterling was in crisis and Norman Lamont was forced to announce a humiliating withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
Having been opposed to the Conservative government's decision to join the European exchange rate mechanism (ERM), he had to deal with "Black Wednesday".
Various attempts to fix one European currency against each other, such as the Exchange Rate Mechanism, crumbled in the face of divergent economic performances in the countries concerned.
He was an adviser to Chancellor Norman Lamont during the Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis of the early 1990s and headed the inquiry into whether former Home Secretary David Blunkett misused his position.
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There is even a precedent: Italy imposed a small tax on all deposits in 1992 as part of its battle to stay in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to the single currency.
Using the currency's 2007 peaks as a guide, the pound has fallen more sharply against the dollar and euro (around 25-30%) than it did after the exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
Without such a federation, can the single currency survive, I asked Helmut Schlesinger, another influential central banker who has seen the odd financial crisis at close quarters and was president of the Bundesbank when sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
After all, the pound has spent the past ten months above its old central rate in the European exchange-rate mechanism of DM2.95.
EU's exchange-rate mechanism for at least two years before acceding to the single currency.
And it is true that John Major blew his credibility overnight when Britain fell out of Europe's exchange-rate mechanism.
The fiasco of Britain's ejection from the exchange-rate mechanism added an impression of incompetence to the impression of drift.
Hedge funds have come under heavy fire since George Soros forced sterling out of Europe's exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.
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In Birmingham in November he apologised for Black Monday and the humiliation of Britain's eviction from Europe's exchange-rate mechanism.
The inflation-targeting regime, introduced after Britain was spat out of the European exchange-rate mechanism in 1992, was already proving a success.
Any arrangement in between, such as the old European exchange-rate mechanism or the East Asian currencies' pegs before 1997-98, will eventually come unstuck.
Numerous crises, from the collapse of Europe's exchange-rate mechanism in 1992-93 to the trauma in East Asia of recent months, make this clear.
And why did Britain refuse to rejoin the European exchange-rate mechanism, membership of which is seen by many as a prerequisite for joining the euro?
George Soros, for example, famously bet against the pound and forced the British government to abandon its membership of Europe's exchange-rate mechanism in September 1992.
Inflation would not have soared, the economy would not have sunk into such a deep recession, sterling might have stayed inside Europe's exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.
And, as the Tories learnt after Britain was spat out of the European exchange-rate mechanism ten years ago, there's nothing voters dislike so much as incompetence.
Anglo-Saxon sceptics about Europe's single currency gleefully predict that these strains will blow the euro apart, just as they did the exchange-rate mechanism in the early 1990s.
Granted, that is small beer, given that prices have trebled since the central London property market took off after Britain was ejected from the exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.
That is a bigger depreciation than the one that occurred after the pound was kicked out of the European exchange-rate mechanism in September 1992 and fell by 18%.
Import prices will be pushed up by a weaker pound, whose 6% fall in the last three months was the biggest since sterling's ignominious exit from the European exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.
Modern currency crises the fracturing of Europe's exchange-rate mechanism in 1992, the Mexican peso crash in 1994, the collapse of East Asia's currencies in 1997, and the recent attacks on the Russian rouble are often blamed on them.
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Rather than the tumbling yen being more evidence of economic incompetence, the exchange rate is the mechanism that redistributes demand away from economies that are operating at full capacity towards those in recession.
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His own reforms, such as introducing a simplified, single-rate foreign-exchange mechanism, private banks and mobile phones, remain on the drawing-board.
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