Euro

When McCormick & Co. bought Europe's top spice-producer for $379 million in late August, it saved $15 million from June's handshake price - thanks to a slide in the euro, the currency launched by 11 European countries in January 1999. But the celebration was short-lived: With the deal done, McCormick executives are praying for a rebound in the roughed-up European currency. The reason: A euro that's weak against the dollar won't just shave the earnings of the newly acquired unit in Europe - it could pinch the profits of the Sparks-based parent.

TUESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS MLB Washington@Dodgers (T) MASN9:30 a.m. San Diego@Orioles MASN7 Boston@Tampa Bay MLB7 Washington@Dodgers MASN210 C. base. Louisville@Ohio State BIGTEN6:30 Indiana@Kentucky FCS6:30 Georgia@Georgia Tech CSN7:30 Presbyterian@South Carolina (T) FCS10 NBA play. New York@Indiana, Gm. 4 TNT7 Golden State@San Antonio, Gm. 5 TNT9:30 W. bowl.

LONDON -- A couple of years from now, you could find yourself forking out a fistful of euros to ride the Space Mountain rocket at Disneyland Paris, or for a ticket to "Aida" at Milan's La Scala opera house, or for a schnapps on Berlin's Kurfurstendamm. Then again, you could find them more useful for buying Baltic Avenue on your Monopoly board. The euro is the European Union's single currency, intended to do away with all those marks and francs and lire and the like. Its enthusiasts foresee a day when, as the EU sweeps eastward, its new money wipes out all those levs and leus and zlotys and other foo-foo currencies that are perhaps better suited as wallpaper for the bathroom.

Europe's single currency is a bust. With unemployment reaching depression levels in the Mediterranean states, time has long passed to negotiate an orderly return to national currencies. Euro advocates argue a single currency is essential for creating a unified continental economy, and the euro is falling short of expectations because monetary union was initiated without fiscal union - namely, sovereign taxing and spending authority for Brussels. Those arguments are little more than polemics from politicians, public servants and pundits who have staked their reputations and careers on a failed economic idea.

Only a few months ago, Americans were fretting about a weak dollar, adoring the euro and looking for ways to insulate themselves from the greenback's slide. They were buying foreign mutual funds to take advantage of stronger currencies. They were adding oil and commodities to their portfolios because natural resources tend to perform well when the dollar is weak. Shoppers were skipping French wine, Italian shoes and European vacations as the falling dollar made them more expensive.

When the euro currency made its debut early last year, economist Steve H. Hanke saw that a painful decline was as inevitable as sunset at the end of a long summer day. The euro is the 11-nation currency of the European Monetary Union, or "EMU," pronounced just like the tall, flightless bird that looks like an ostrich. Like the bird, the currency never really took wing. Unveiled at $1.17 per euro Jan. 1, 1999, the currency jumped to a record high of $1.1886 when it first traded three days later, but it has since demonstrated little muscle.

PARIS -- Europe's new currency, the euro, was introduced in January not only as a culminating step in European union, but also with the conviction that it would provide a new and powerful rival for the dollar.Now the euro -- launched at a value nearly 20 percent higher than the dollar -- has fallen to near-dollar parity. It traded yesterday at $1.03 to the dollar, down 11.3 percent for the year. Markets and analysts rumbled with forebodings that the European currency would fall below the $1 barrier, a seeming humiliation for the European Union.

WASHINGTON -- Next Jan. 1, citizens of the 12 countries that have accepted the euro will have euro coins jangling in their pockets, euro notes stuffing their wallets. By the end of February 2002, dual circulation will have ended and the old marks, francs, lira and other national currencies will have disappeared, good only for scrapbooks. The euro has existed until now only as a "shadow quote," in the words Gunter Burghardt, the European Union's chief representative in the United States.

PARIS -- Twenty miles east of here, a make-believe world is rising amid fields of hay and sugar beets.It's Euro Disney, the giant theme park/resort that is Disney's first venture in Europe.And what a venture it is! Disney is creating a fantasy land a fifth the size of the city of Paris, and though it's five months from its April 12 opening, it has already caught the imagination of Europeans.More than a half-million of them already have paid 10 francs a head ($1.80) to take a peek in Euro Disney's preview center since it opened last December.

DUBLIN - A couple of weeks ago, a guy named Nikos was driving me at breakneck speed to Kavala airport in northern Greece. We talked about everything from the factory where he worked to the difference between Greek and American tobacco. When the talk hit a lull, Nikos had a surefire gambit in reserve. "One euro," he said proudly, "equals 340 drachmas." Nikos is ready for the first of next year, when a dozen national currencies - from the ancient drachma to the Irish punt, a mere septuagenarian - start disappearing in favor of the euro, a single currency that will bring monetary union to 12 countries in Western Europe.

European leaders are working feverishly to create what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling a "fiscal union" to restore private investor confidence in Europe and rekindle growth. Unfortunately, what she advocates will thrust Europe into a deeper economic crisis and leave European leaders without the fiscal and monetary policy tools necessary to combat recessions. The reforms Chancellor Merkel is pushing - hard caps on national government deficits - would ensure the ultimate demise of the euro, years of economic stagnation or worse.

Only a few months ago, Americans were fretting about a weak dollar, adoring the euro and looking for ways to insulate themselves from the greenback's slide. They were buying foreign mutual funds to take advantage of stronger currencies. They were adding oil and commodities to their portfolios because natural resources tend to perform well when the dollar is weak. Shoppers were skipping French wine, Italian shoes and European vacations as the falling dollar made them more expensive.

Almost from the outset, it was Germany, not Portugal, that showed flair. It was the Germans, a group runner-up, who dominated the Portuguese, a group winner. Bastian Schweinsteiger, coming off a suspension, scored one goal and set up two more last night in Basel, Switzerland, leading Germany over Portugal, 3-2, and into the European Championship semifinals. It was the first time Germany moved into the final four since it won Euros in 1996, and the first time Portugal failed to make the semifinals in the past three major international tournaments.

Bankruptcies are up. Home sales are down. Foreclosure is high. The dollar is low. It's a good time in America - parts of it, anyway. While the country's economic slowdown continues to claim casualties - think subprime lenders and furniture retailers - some are thriving in it. Bankruptcy attorneys are having a business boom. Landlords are gaining renters. And European travelers are using their weighty pounds and euros to splurge on U.S. souvenirs - such as New York condos. One-third of those sold in the past 18 months went to foreign buyers, according to real estate analysts Radar Logic Inc. "There are some industries that have a kind of automatic insurance policy" for this economy, said Albert S. Kyle, the Smith Chair Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Nation : Courts Interstate Bakeries pursues its own plan Interstate Bakeries Corp., which makes Wonder Bread, said yesterday that it would proceed with a bankruptcy court hearing Jan. 29 to request creditor approval for its plan. Tuesday's midnight deadline for outside proposals passed without any filings from Yucaipa, an investment firm lead by billionaire Ron Burkle, which last month submitted a preliminary proposal to buy Interstate Bakeries, valuing it at $580 million. The proposal did not provide details of a reorganization plan.

NEW YORK -- Foreign investors exploited the declining U.S. dollar over the past three months to snap up American companies at the fastest pace in at least a decade. Buyers from Dubai to the Netherlands accounted for 46 percent of the $230.5 billion in U.S. mergers and acquisitions announced in the fourth quarter, the biggest share since 1998 when Bloomberg started compiling the data. The total excludes $17.9 billion of so-called passive investments by state-run funds in Asia and the Middle East in U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc. The influx of overseas buyers cushioned a drop in domestic deals, as tighter credit markets ended the leveraged buyout boom that spurred record-setting takeovers in the first half 2007.

PARIS - The Walt Disney Co. and three French banks agreed to bail out Euro Disney SCA for the second time in a decade to prevent Europe's biggest theme-park operator from defaulting on $2.9 billion of debt. Euro Disney, which is 39-percent-owned by Walt Disney, would sell new stock under an agreement reached yesterday. The accord needs to be approved by creditors holding more than half of the debt, said Pieter Boterman, a spokesman for the French theme park company. Euro Disney shares rose 2.9 percent.

DETROIT -- The dollar's falling value is making European automakers eager to build more vehicles in the United States, even as American car companies continue to shift production to lower-cost countries. Fiat, the Italian carmaker, is the latest company to suggest that it may build a plant in the United States. Its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, told Automotive News Europe that its sports car brand, Alfa Romeo, needs a North American plant to be profitable. Alfa Romeo is returning to the United States next year after a 13-year absence.

DETROIT -- The dollar's falling value is making European automakers eager to build more vehicles in the United States, even as American car companies continue to shift production to lower-cost countries. Fiat, the Italian carmaker, is the latest company to suggest that it may build a plant in the United States. Its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, told Automotive News Europe that its sports car brand, Alfa Romeo, needs a North American plant to be profitable. Alfa Romeo is returning to the United States next year after a 13-year absence.

PARIS -- At Yves Saint Laurent, the storied French design house that manufactures exclusively in Europe, the plunging value of the U.S. dollar has CEO Valerie Hermann thinking about the number of pockets on a skirt and the price of embroidery on a dress. Hermann is adamant that YSL must include in its ready-to-wear offerings cocktail dresses that don't cost more than 1,900 euros. "It's a crucial limit," she said. Six months ago, that was the equivalent of $2,565. Today, she'd have to sell the same garment for $215 more to make the same profit.