The EU, No Longer A Disaster Waiting To Happen

It is absolutely incredible, but with a global banking crisis having tilted the financial world's spin, the EU continues to insist that politics of power are far more important than people's lives or in fact reality. The Eurozone has a one size fits all currency, so when one country is struggling and needs it's currency to fall in value it can't. Which is why we see the overdrawn countries in Europe now in such dire peril. Yes the Greeks got their economy spectacularly wrong, with careless, reckless and criminal activities but because they are not a sovereign nation any more they cannot rescue themselves. Greece and all the other countries of the EU cannot work their way out of trouble. They cannot say 'oh well, it was nice while it lasted' and get back to the grindstone. They are hamstrung with an interest rate set for the benefit of Germany and France, in particular. Strong economies in other words.

Let us put it in a real world setting. If Greece suddenly started making cars that were as desirable and well made as BMW's (I know, but just go with it for the analogy) and they still had the Drachma, Germans would be queuing up to buy them as they would be as good but much cheaper than the home produced product. But the Germans are protected from this (admittedly unlikely) situation as they control the Eurozone economy and can stop the Greeks undercutting them. And the Greeks cannot do anything about it because they are politically controlled from Brussels. I wonder if that was ever explained to the Greek people? May be it was, because they were taking so much out of the EU it was worth being a member. But we in Britain are certainly not told what our politicians are agreeing to because there is absolutely no way more than a small percentage of dreamers would vote for it.

So we have the spectacle of EU politicians meeting to discuss the crisis engulfing Europe and the man in street assumes they are seeking ways to stop all the bailouts. But in fact they are only interested in how they save the Euro, which is why they get the bailouts. The Emperor has strutted around with no clothes on for some time now and people are beginning to notice. The very fact that they are addressing the wrong issues is what is making the situation worse. The strategy so far has been to blame the banking crisis and hope it sorts itself out. But it is the straitjacket of the Euro that is destroying the stability of these countries and indeed it was the promise of free money that led them into such fiscal laxity in the first place. Lying about the situation hasn't worked, what will they try next? Nothing to save the nation states you can bet, but everything for their own power at the centre. The European Union of Socialist Republics is falling apart as did their model before them. I suppose we have to ask in extremis will the problems we face today lead to another European war, as France and Germany realise their dreams of empire are slipping away?