IHT: Ten years later, the euro stands strong - by By Carter Dougherty and Mark Landler

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Ten years later, the euro stands strong - by Carter Dougherty and Mark Landler

Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and Berlin - each, at some point, the political and economic capital of an empire, containing the power of New York and Washington combined - each surrendered a piece of sovereignty to a common currency, a foreign coin of the realm. "When you have to cope with the history enshrined in those capitals," Trichet said in an interview in the Eurotower, the European Central Bank's headquarters, in Frankfurt, "you are necessarily working on an original." That original, the euro, is the currency of 15 countries and 320 million people today. Trichet and top European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, will gather today in Frankfurt's elegant Old Opera to celebrate the accomplishment.