Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

ecb.europa.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 340 posts

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#171

Post by mrtksn »

kgwgk wrote: post #145
mrtksn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all, Armenians were also an integral part of the Ottoman society and that’s how you still have plenty of Armenian cultural heritage dating back to Ottoman times in modern Turkey. You must be referring to the events around WW1 that led the loss of huge numbers of the Armenians through atrocities committed by the Ottomans which some say that it was a genocide, others say it was poorly managed suppression of a re…

> poorly managed suppression of a rebellion Or a too well managed suppression. “ We have been blamed for not making a distinction between guilty and innocent Armenians. [To do so] was impossible. Because of the nature of things, one who was still innocent today could be guilty tomorrow. The concern for the safety of Turkey simply had to silence all other concerns.”

Could be, I agree. I'm inclined to believe that it become a genocide once the incompetent administrators failed to address the core reasons and thought that it would be easier to make these troubles go away by killing everybody.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#172

Post by 3D30497420 »

ktsangop wrote: post #148

I hope Bulgaria and the EU have learned from past mistakes (I don't think they have). While EU and the Euro had good intentions and prospect, it turned out to be a disaster for some of us. Greece is in a recession for more than 16 years now, with no visible exit, because (one of many reasons of course) it couldn't devalue its currency back in 2009. Now we might speculate that Greece couldn't have avoided this, even i…

The Greek economy is still in recession? The EC seems to think it is doing fairly well: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-e...

Certainly better than Germany (however comparable the two economies can be): https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-e...

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#173

Post by raxxorraxor »

PunchTornado wrote: post #165
Roark66 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish here, very much against adopting the euro until our standard of living and growth rate matches Germany (no at least not for next 10 years). Why? Because the disadvantages far out weight the benefits for developing countries. The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation. Surely the monetary policy will follow what is bes…

who is non-democratic and why?

The EU institution because of pragmatic and systematic properties. Ultimately to say something is democratic or not is a subjective opinion, but EU proponents have made the mistake to brush such criticism away.

Since then the EU is mostly developing in a wrong direction.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#174

Post by yxhuvud »

CjHuber wrote: post #166
Roark66 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish here, very much against adopting the euro until our standard of living and growth rate matches Germany (no at least not for next 10 years). Why? Because the disadvantages far out weight the benefits for developing countries. The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation. Surely the monetary policy will follow what is bes…

But you have a much higher growth rate than Germany, why in the world would you like for Poland to match Germany‘s miserable growth rate

Eventually they will catch up to the level of GDP Germany have and then they will start to roughly match their growth rate, over time. It is a lot easier to catch up than to break new ground when it comes to gdp per capita.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#175

Post by omnimus »

gbil wrote: post #18
mc32 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the experience of Greece not too far back and the austerity imposed by Germany is not quite forgotten. Varoufakis[1] can attest to its severity. The Greeks voted against it but Germany imposed its will. [1] https://jacobin.com/2025/07/yanis-varoufakis-on-the-legacy-o...

This is a very distant view for the reasons behind the crisis in Greece and for sure the government of 2015 was not a victim. In the context of this thread, Bulgarians as Greeks before them, enjoy the money from the EU but don’t like the responsibility that comes from it, to reform, to also contribute and that you lose the own currency perks while you gain on other fronts. Of course there is a lot more here to discus…

Greece was sacrificed so eurozone (especialy Germany) could hide recession by bailing out banks (through bailing out Hreece). Greeks know and believe this. That makes their relationship with EU quite complicated.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#176

Post by cik »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #167
Strom wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schengen is incredibly useful, especially if you have to transit through several countries. It's also true that the decrease in cash usage has reduced the benefit of the euro. However, the benefits of a single currency go beyond cash. It's also about understanding prices. You see a sign for coffee and it's 1199 Hungarian Forint -- or it's 14.99 Polish złoty. It's not clear at all what those numbers mean. Sure it's po…

This isn't my experience, so I think people should pay attention to their specific situation. Granted, I haven't recently been to any EU country without the Euro, but my main bank charges extortionate conversion fees, 2.sth%, with a ridiculous minimum per transaction. A few months ago, I've ordered something off Amazon UK (while in the UK) and the conversion they offered was very close to the official GBP / EUR excha…

My experience is similar to yours. Banks and credit cards here, love to charge a 7% (total) currency conversion fee. I happily allow Amazon (1%), and basically everyone else to do this as it is much, much cheaper. There are different financial experiences in different countries.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#178

Post by [deleted] »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #111
Roark66 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish here, very much against adopting the euro until our standard of living and growth rate matches Germany (no at least not for next 10 years). Why? Because the disadvantages far out weight the benefits for developing countries. The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation. Surely the monetary policy will follow what is bes…

Exactly right. The euro has benefited countries like Germany a lot but not necessarily all countries.

[deleted]

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#179

Post by smcl »

epolanski wrote: post #110
oaiey wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Euro was part of the Maastricht treaty which formed the EU as we know it today in 1992. The euro part was a power move of France against a reunited Germany which back story origins in the early 80s. Obviously backfired.

How did it backfire?

Because Germany is the dominant power in the European Union and France isn't

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#180

Post by menaerus »

epolanski wrote: post #112
storus wrote: post #96

Doubling of the prices overnight coming like in Croatia and many countries before it?

Yes there's an inflation shock at the beginning, then salaries and everything adjusts.

So, after introducing the euro, and everything overnight becomes ~2x more expensive, salaries will match that trajectory and eventually also become ~2x larger, almost universally no matter the job type? Did I get your argument right? I ask because I don't think this actually has been the case with pretty much any EU country.

From what I have seen, salaries will certainly adjust themselves, and they will grow, but the resulting purchasing power is going to remain lower than it has been prior to introducing the euro.

Post reply on HN