German 'Fortune Cookies' Foretell Euro's Future

Germany's finance ministry has come up with a novel way of predicting which way the cookie will crumble for the future of the troubled euro.

Fortune cookies filled with positive prophesies for the common European currency, such as "Progress due to a stable euro" or "Progress for a united Europe", have been distributed in Berlin.

Some 16,000 of the euro cookies were produced at a cost of nearly 4,000 euros (5,500 dollars) for the finance ministry's open day at the end of August, the ministry said on Wednesday.

They continued to be distributed until Germany's national day on October 3, which marks the country's reunification, and some remain in stock, it added.

According to a poll earlier in the month, most Germans would welcome a return of their old currency, the mighty deutschmark, seen as a symbol of Germany's so-called economic miracle after World War II.