Gorgeous model from South Africa Gabriella

 

The gorgeous model from South Africa, Gabriella Demetriades is the cover girl for the men’s magazine FHM South Africa for the month of April 2010. Gabriella Demetriades was selected as a “Miss Bollywood Deccan Chargers” in IPL Cricket match and famous as the “Miss IPL.” After this selection she becomes most surrfing lady in the world of internet. Gabriella was in the list of FHM 100 sexiest women in the world 2009 and appear in the FHM Calendar 2009.

A tale of three sovereign types

One of the great ironies of EMU convergence has proven to be the fact that those countries who went down the road of prematurely “converging” to a full EMU membership, by tying themselves too close to the project in allowing the debt in their nations to be largely denominated in EUR, are the ones suffering the most right now.

However, what may seem like a mindless “euroisation” (i.e. the replacement of a national currency in practical terms) ambition among some CEE nations and monetary and fiscal prudence among others was, to be fair, more a stroke of luck for those blessed enough not to have sunk down into a quagmire of FX debt than prudent policy. Regardless, the fact that those who have avoided the FX debt quagmire are in a far better position going forward than those who have in effect already become “euroised” remains.

But before we continue our analysis of what the consequences may be if the prospects for EMU entrance among the CEE candidate countries should become dimmer, we should lay out the rationale for why that would be the case. The starting point is that “it takes two to tango”. There must be a willingness on the part of the existing EMU members to accept new members and there must be a willingness among candidate countries to abandon their monetary freedom (to whatever extent that exists) and join the club.

The political cost-benefit analysis for the Baltic countries is an ideal model in this respect. While the political agenda still is dead set on EMU membership there is reason to suspect that the ambition may be less than iron clad.

Firstly, we must always keep in mind that you have a certain monetary policy regime until you don’t. By this we mean that you cannot under any circumstances afford to reveal the slightest disbelief in your chosen regime, as doing so would spell immediate death for your policy model. Secondly, the current EMU members still pay lip service to an EMU enlargement, but it is not unreasonable to expect that they think they have their hands full for the foreseeable future with Greece and the other PIIGS, and not be inclined to accept new members. Certainly not ones with large economic imbalances.

Thirdly, it is true that the Baltic states - Latvia in particular – have submitted themselves to extreme economic and political distress in an attempt at internal devaluation (i.e. instead of lowering the value of your currency you lower the cost level in real terms vs. you chosen anchor nation). This economic suffering is endured as it is means to an end. But to what end, really? And is there any risk that the medicine will kill any chances of qualifying for full EMU membership and thus turn all the suffering into an exercise of futility?

As far as the end itself is concerned, it is reasonable to assume that the recent exposure of EMU weakness in the wake of the Greek troubles has made EMU membership less attractive. After all, the EMU was supposed to be a haven of fiscal and monetary prudence, and now countries may think twice about joining a currency union with Greece.