‘Stupidity’ Created Euro: Wetherspoon Chairman
Associate Editor, CNBC
The euro is nothing more than an economic mirage because it lacks the essential building blocks of a long-term secure currency, according to Tim Martin, chairman of UK pub restaurant chain JD Wetherspoon.
"I was one of the main spokesmen against the euro eleven years ago and said then it would not survive … because if you want a currency you have to have a government," Martin said.
He added that history had shown that currencies without governments fail.
"Through stupidity, romanticism and goodness knows what, the experts—chancellors and economists—supported the idea of a currency that has no chance of working. Even its predecessor, the Exchange Rate Mechanism, collapsed."
"Even today people are saying with government action it can survive—it can't, it's a busted flush, an economic mirage. The more money put into it the more and more time it takes people to realize its finished, the worse it's going to be," he added.
He spoke on the day his company, JD Wetherspoon , posted a drop in full-year profits before tax by 1.9 percent to £66.8 million ($106.8 million).