WITH a little creative accounting of capital letters some bean counting economists, more familiar with the calculator than the dictionary, have come up with an apposite acronym for those countries currently on the single currency inside track.
The word is BAFFLING, short for Belgium, Austria, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland the Netherlands and Germany. However, with the baffling dismal science and the EMU in a constant state of flux, the word is, naturally, subject to change. With France lurching to the left and Germany conceding defeat in its squabble with the Bundesbank to put a new fiscal gloss on its gold reserves, even more buts and maybe comes into the exasperating EMU equation.
Given the frenzied rowing back on Maastricht convergence criteria the evolution of a suitable acronym is further complicated by the possibility of the addition of an S for Spain and a P for Portugal, and maybe even an I for Italy, a conundrum more even puzzling that the intricacies of the single currency itself. Computer spell-checkers are working hard to come up with a solution. So far no recognisable word has emerged. Perhaps you could do better?
