Critics of the Euro usually concentrate on the harm from centralising monetary policy in the hands of the European Central Bank, and often overlook one of the biggest stories, the decline of economic privacy.

According to a report in EE TIMES, the European Central Bank plans to embed radio frequency ID (RFID) tags in the euro by 2005.

These would have the ability to read and write information to a bank note, in effect allowing money to carry its own history. This will have the benefit of making kidnapping, money laundering, and drug trafficking more difficult, although some might argue that simply legalising the latter might be preferable way to reduce that type of crime. 

It will also do harm by undermining Europe's informal black economy.   This is not only an important outlet for those who can't find work in Europe's rigid and over-regulated official labour markets, but it also limits government regulation on the rest of us.   In the same way as smugglers stop politicians setting alcohol and tobacco tax too high, black economy workers limit the expansion of the nanny state.   It’s easy to see why politicians should want RFID tags, but much less clear how the rest of us would benefit.

We won’t just lose national economic sovereignty by retiring national currencies. We will lose individual economic sovereignty if we let politicians embed the Euro with these markers.

See "Euro bank notes to embed RFID chips by 2005" (EE TIMES, 12/19/01) at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink4-1-1.html

Jim Thornton