11-2-95. FT: "Electronic money in a race with Emu." Economic and monetary union or electronic money? Recent suggestions that the start of Emu might be delayed beyond 1999 raise the intriguing possibility that a viable international electronic money will be available before the European single currency. Depending on your perspective, this would be either disaster or nirvana. Disaster, because governments and central banks in countries with weak currencies would lose the seignorage that currency issue brings, and the sovereignty it is supposed to provide (but may not). Disaster, because it would destroy two central aims of Emu: the sharing of power between monetary authorities, and the attempted imposition of currency soundness by institutional fiat. Nirvana, because it would provide people with a powerful protection against the random and hidden taxation imposed on them when governments inflate, and because it would create monetary soundness via market forces. EMU_boo (5 kb) FT on the Web: <www.ft.com> or <www.usa.ft.com>. Selections avaliable, not this one, but read today's "Smart building" for the security and ID gadgets to track-attack-siphon.