Euro-zone experiment is 12-years old today. It grew from original 11 countries to now 17. The latest edition is Estonia. It is tiny, but it is first from former Soviet Republics. N Euro Zone Country Date Entered 1 Austria 1999-01-01 2 Belgium 1999-01-01 3 Finland 1999-01-01 4 France 1999-01-01 5 Germany 1999-01-01 6 Ireland 1999-01-01 7 Italy 1999-01-01 8 Luxembourg 1999-01-01 9 Netherlands 1999-01-01 10 Portugal 1999-01-01 11 Spain 1999-01-01 12 Greece 2001-01-01 13 Slovenia 2007-01-01 14 Cyprus 2008-01-01 15 Malta 2008-01-01 16 Slovakia 2009-01-01 17 Estonia 2011-01-01 The experiment is growing despite tremendous difficulties. National Governments have to give up one of the potent tools at their disposal – printing…