After British, Japanese, and American nail-biting about where their currencies are headed, eurozone leaders are the latest to join in the jeremiads. With the euro touching $1.50, an adviser to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has called the euro’s strength a “disaster” for Europe’s industry.

European whining is more startling than hand-wringing elsewhere. The young currency has after all taken more than its a fair share of bullying as a weakling in the major currency club. From being worth $1.18 at its triumphant launch in 1999, it hit an embarrassing $0.83 less thant two years later, a fall of 30 per cent. It fell by an equally humiliating 20 and 33 per cent against sterling and the yen.