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economy != control over monetary policy ; but sensationalist media has done a great job at making citizens believe otherwise

Not only monetary policy, but to a large extent their banking system, and their fiscal policy as well.

Knowing Latvian politicians and bankers, that can only be a good thing.

Some would say they threw their economy away in mid-nineties.

Then again, they seem to fare better than some countries who didn't (Belarus and Ukraine).

17th

Are you excluding Germany, on the basis that they're de-facto still in control of their local currency's monetary policy? :P

no, he's excluding the UK, which kept the pound.

That's not one of the 18 countries in the Eurozone, though. The Eurozone consists of: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

The UK is one of the 10 countries in the EU but not in the Eurozone: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the UK.

Indeed :)

More of a provocation, since I don't really agree with the idea. It does seems like it sometimes, though...