<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>skissane</author><text>&amp;gt; Isn&amp;#x27;t the E.U. the only union and non-country to have a singular currency?&lt;p&gt;No, it isn&amp;#x27;t. In Africa, there is the West African CFA Franc issued by the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and the Central African CFA Franc issued by the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa – both are legacies of French colonialism, in which newly independent states decided to keep the common currency they had under the French colonial empire.&lt;p&gt;In the Caribbean, there is the East Caribbean Dollar, issued by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. It is used by independent states that were former British colonies, and also by two British overseas territories. Like the CFA Francs, it is a case of newly independent states choosing to retain the common currency they had under British rule.&lt;p&gt;The idea of a common currency isn&amp;#x27;t that new. France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece had a common currency between 1865 and 1927 (the Latin Monetary Union). Similarly, Sweden, Denmark and Norway had a common currency between 1873 and 1905 (the Scandinavian Monetary Union.)</text><parent_chain><item><author>yingw787</author><text>I kinda don&amp;#x27;t think after all this people want to move towards currency consolidation. Isn&amp;#x27;t the E.U. the only union and non-country to have a singular currency? And isn&amp;#x27;t that singular monetary policy something that causes a great deal of friction between member states (e.g. Greece and Germany back in &amp;#x27;08)? I  think if you took another vote among E.U. members to ratify the Maastricht treaty today, you might get a different result.&lt;p&gt;What us technologists might aspire to is pretty different from the ground truth.</text></item><item><author>espadrine</author><text>In the EU at least, monetary policy is a property of the currency (which crosses borders), while fiscal policy is a property of the government (associated with a single administrative country).&lt;p&gt;If the world evolves further into currency consolidation (which seems to be the direction aspired to by many technologists hoping for Internet money), this distinction will grow in relevance.</text></item><item><author>User23</author><text>There never really was. It was always a charade. The only real “benefit” of the current system is that seigniorage profits are accrued by primary dealers rather than Treasury.</text></item><item><author>yingw787</author><text>One can dream, but you can imagine if the Fed really wanted to implement UBI, it could probably do something like:&lt;p&gt;- Give everyone in the U.S. a guaranteed loan for $2,001, 0% interest, payable at the end of the month&lt;p&gt;- Before you &amp;quot;default&amp;quot;, enter in a &amp;quot;negotiation&amp;quot; where the Fed can buy back the security from you for $1, writing off &amp;quot;the losses&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;- Do it all again the next month&lt;p&gt;Tada! Monetary policy as fiscal policy! If you don&amp;#x27;t want to write it off immediately, guarantee 0% interest and have the timeline for the loan be 200 years, then write off the debt as nonpayable after death.&lt;p&gt;But seriously, I&amp;#x27;m not sure if there&amp;#x27;s a clear line between monetary policy and fiscal policy anymore.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>The Fed Will Buy Bond ETFs Now</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-12/the-fed-will-buy-bond-etfs-now</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>vasco</author><text>This friction as you call it, is happening again during the current crisis, again between southern european countries and mostly Netherlands and Germany, specifically on the topic of coronabonds which has been widely debated and made lots of headlines. The way the euro works the main direct benefits go to the largest exporting economies, with the weaker ones pretty much losing out. Then the idea is that this is offset by the stronger economies helping the weaker ones in the form of EU grants but there&amp;#x27;s always a big push back as these direct funds are seen as handouts while the benefits of the common currency are dismissed. This pressure is seen clearly in demands for harsher and harsher austerity. It doesn&amp;#x27;t help that some officials from northern economies keep showing how they really feel about the situation, going as far as providing quotes like southern countries &amp;quot;spending all their money on women and wine&amp;quot; and the whole PIIGs designation. It&amp;#x27;s a tough thing to try and rationalise for someone who largely believes in the EU project but who is originally from one of these southern countries and has felt the direct effects of the whole post-2008 period.</text><parent_chain><item><author>yingw787</author><text>I kinda don&amp;#x27;t think after all this people want to move towards currency consolidation. Isn&amp;#x27;t the E.U. the only union and non-country to have a singular currency? And isn&amp;#x27;t that singular monetary policy something that causes a great deal of friction between member states (e.g. Greece and Germany back in &amp;#x27;08)? I  think if you took another vote among E.U. members to ratify the Maastricht treaty today, you might get a different result.&lt;p&gt;What us technologists might aspire to is pretty different from the ground truth.</text></item><item><author>espadrine</author><text>In the EU at least, monetary policy is a property of the currency (which crosses borders), while fiscal policy is a property of the government (associated with a single administrative country).&lt;p&gt;If the world evolves further into currency consolidation (which seems to be the direction aspired to by many technologists hoping for Internet money), this distinction will grow in relevance.</text></item><item><author>User23</author><text>There never really was. It was always a charade. The only real “benefit” of the current system is that seigniorage profits are accrued by primary dealers rather than Treasury.</text></item><item><author>yingw787</author><text>One can dream, but you can imagine if the Fed really wanted to implement UBI, it could probably do something like:&lt;p&gt;- Give everyone in the U.S. a guaranteed loan for $2,001, 0% interest, payable at the end of the month&lt;p&gt;- Before you &amp;quot;default&amp;quot;, enter in a &amp;quot;negotiation&amp;quot; where the Fed can buy back the security from you for $1, writing off &amp;quot;the losses&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;- Do it all again the next month&lt;p&gt;Tada! Monetary policy as fiscal policy! If you don&amp;#x27;t want to write it off immediately, guarantee 0% interest and have the timeline for the loan be 200 years, then write off the debt as nonpayable after death.&lt;p&gt;But seriously, I&amp;#x27;m not sure if there&amp;#x27;s a clear line between monetary policy and fiscal policy anymore.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>The Fed Will Buy Bond ETFs Now</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-12/the-fed-will-buy-bond-etfs-now</url></story>