No offence, there are so many things wrong with your aunt's views, I can't even list them all. I readily admit it is a very popular view in Europe to blame the euro for everything. It is there since retailers raised their prices by an inordinate amount when shifting from francs/lire/mark/etc. to euro. The funny thing is these people don't realize that if there will be a shift back to the old currencies, then the same inordinate one time price hike will take place. Plus can these people remember what the average yearly inflation rate was for the franc or the lire? And don't count the last years (since they introduced the xeu), because everything was already fixed and kept within a very narrow range. But it is an uphill battle against demagogy. Can someone tell me what the link between a more expensive cart of milk in France and the higher euro is? I just fail to see it.