K writes:The Irish thing (like the Greek, Portuguese, etc.) was always an illusion - how did Ireland suddenly go from being one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the richest?How indeed?
The answer is that they didn't.The British are thankful that they had not joined the euro. Yet they are facing now a £7 billion liability in any bail-out package.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the spectre of the euro collapsing as she warned: “If the euro fails, then Europe fails.”
Using my deductive powers, I feel something bad going on in Europe. How would look a failed Europe? A failed America? A failed West? Pic: Dragon Chair (a Feng Shui superstition).
17 comments:
I think by 'Europe' she means the EU. It's a verbal-mental trick, that attempts to get people to identify the EU with Europe itself... whereas they may be in reality mutually exclusive.
(Which is not to say that Europe and America can't fail... )
No trick. Europe IS the European Union.
By EU, though, I meant only the polity or government - Brussels. As distinct from the lands or peoples.
In the short run, yes, the end of the Euro means the effective end of a unified European government, since the Euro was its most tangible product. But is that the end of the chain? What was the purpose of the EU to begin with? The theory was: Unified currency = Economic union = political union = no more internal European wars. Once you break the first link in the chain, then all bets are theoretically off and are we back to the historical norm of a European war every few decades?
K
Sir, your analysis is correct.
That is exactly what the German Chancellor is suggesting in not so many words.
That being said, having spendthrift Greeks and hardworking Germans living under one roof is hard. Imagine a United States of US & Mexico (OK, you don't need to imagine - we're headed there defacto already). Fighting wars might be easier in comparison.
K
Merkel, "then Europe fails.”
Translated into non-EU jargon:
Failed Europe = Failed EUrocracy, not failure of European civilization (salvation of European civilation?).
As bad as the Eurocracy is, I would prefer it to war, the normal means of Euro. "diplomacy".
K
As bad as the Eurocracy is, I would prefer it to war, the normal means of Euro. "diplomacy"
Bullshit. Non-whites love war at least as much as whites.
War is not an European invention. But Europeans excel in it and only Europeans had hundred years wars.
The European Union's explicit purpose is to delete borders and wars. It succeeded. For decades, Germans worked hard and quietly paid the bills and everyone was happy.
These days the Germans are feeling cheated and exploited. Merkel is doing a heroic job convincing Germans to keep paying, saying that Germany benefits from the EU and tacitly that Germany had suffered (more than other countries according to German self-pity) in those terrible wars.
If the EU political integration went away, that wouldn't necessarily mean a return of intra-European wars. For one thing, most of the major European countries would still be bound as allies via NATO.
As one of the world's leading exporters, Germany does benefit from the EU in one sense: the peripheral countries drag down the value of the euro, and the cheaper currency boosts German exports. Without the PIIGS, the euro might be worth over $2.
The Germans had a perfectly good currency and didn't need the Euro for that - this was a political project. Germans could never again be 100% proud to be German (unless they were themselves Nazis). There is no taint attached to being a "European".
K
As long as "European" doesn't mean "white".
Anon.
European as in "citizen of the EU".
K
And preferably an immigrant.
Anon.
I know that the euro adoption was part of a political project. It's still true that German exports are benefiting from the relatively weak euro today.
I'm not so sure that it really will be a long term paying proposition for the German taxpayers to guaranty (and ultimately pay off on) the debt of Greece, Ireland, etc. which is what is going on now. For a while, having the US gov. guaranty (via FNMA) the debt of "subprime" (read unqualified) borrowers seemed like a benefit to the economy also. The good news is that the Greeks bought more Mercedes than they would have w/ drachmas. The bad news is that the Germans themselves will ultimately be paying for them. This doesn't sound like such a great deal for the German taxpayers even if it brought Daimler a few extra sales. If the Germans wanted to manipulate their currency the Chinese could have showed them how to do it without guarantying the debt of their spendthrift neighbors.
K
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