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Euro Pros!

While ill-winds from the Aegean are buffeting the financial futures across Euroland, a strong breeze of common sense is blowing from the Baltic waters.

Estonia is set to join the Euro currency group next year. The tiny Baltic state of 1.3 million people has proven to be the keeper of the flame of fiscal discipline. Public debt is the lowest in Europe and the deficit is just under 3 percent. And while the roaring economic growth rates of the 1990's are but a memory, this proud little democracy has all the attributes for joining the common Euro currency--without having to fudge the numbers.

Naturally the Tallin government wants to join the Euro to be fully part of the Club to which it already belongs--NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union. After a half century of brutal Soviet occupation, Estonians appreciate freedom but also want that insurance policy of belonging. Look at the map!