It is a strange world when our leaders do not learn from history but believe they can build empires on sand or moving platforms; such is the case for the Euro. The basic idea of a single currency ruled by one finance ministry and tax regime is an excellent idea, and from this idea the politicians decided to go madly ahead and introduce a single currency without first building the strongest foundations possible.
The politicians decided that all countries within the Euro zone were at the same level of wealth, that all countries had strict tax regimes and that all countries played by the same rules. However this was far from the truth, the northern European countries had rich manufacturing economies and very rigid tax regimes with people that played by the rules; while the southern states had very little in regards to manufacturing industry and relied mainly on farming and tourism, with a tax regime that is laughable at best and absolutely non existent at worst.
With such a moving platform the entire Euro project was doomed to failure or at least very shaky from the start. But in the way of politicians who are too interested in their own self importance and in being re-elected they went ahead with a misguided project. It would have been a lot more sensible to have started the Euro project with just the rich northern countries then the rest could slowly brought into line with their taxation system, followed by bringing prices and salaries into line then easing them into the Euro, then the currency would have had strong foundations and been a power to be felt world wide rather than the dangerous toxic currency it is becoming.
The Euro can be pulled back from the abyss but only at a very high cost, a cost the population will have to pay for their leader’s mistakes.
If only the leaders had read Matthew 7:26 about the foolish man who built his house upon the sand only to see it washed away while the wise man built his house on the rocks and it stood the test of time; but politicians are ephemeral characters and only look for today and the next election.
Boadicea's Chariot 
People do not change that quickly or easily. Italians will always be Italians — divided even within their own realm. After all, Rome does not inspire the same loyalty in the regions as do Palermo, Naples, Florence, or Genoa. If Italy cannot rally around its own nationhood, how can it rally around a pie-in-the-sky European ideal in any meaningful sense? Greece has a long history of being united only out of fear of those around them. Other than that, they will take care of those around them on their own terms — not by the dictates of Athens and certainly not Brussels of Berlin. Portugal has always done things its own way, ever since its accidental birth long ago. It might be more united, but it also has always been a free-spirit, one which chaffed under union with the not-too-unsimilar Spain. Spain, much like Italy, has no meaningful sense of unity within its own centre, much less to a European ideal in any meaningful sense.
Europe is hardly even a continent. It’s really little more than a large peninsula in North-Western Asia.
Its civilisations pale in age when compared to India, China, Korea, Thailand, or, for that matter, even Mexico. (North America, yes, but worth putting in) There is no rock on which to build anything, there’s hardly even sand. Madrid has more in common with Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Mexico, DF than it does Stockholm or Tallinn. Lisbon can relate more easily to Sao Paulo, Maputo, or Sao Vicente than it can Frankfurt or Warsaw. Italy and Greece have their diasporas, their little colonies ranging from Melbourne to Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro. Something cannot be made from nothing.
Yep.
There are times when it is better to pull a faulty structure down and decide whether it is worth rebuilding rather than keep throwing money at propping it up. In the end the structure will fall and there will be nothing except a large debt.
The whole idea of European political and fiscal union was devised by people who not only didn’t look at history, but refused to look at the present.
Heaven save the world from political idealists…
RR, good evening
Excuse me for directing my post to Christopher aus Trier.
Good evening as well CaT. Most of my European History from my school days has vanished beyond recall but, as a German, do you think that a memory of the Zollverein and the part that it played in the unification of Germany still colours the views of your countrymen when it comes to the Euro?
I think there are two issues here.
1) Cultural
2) Genetic
Cultures can be learned, adapted, abandoned within a relatively short space of time.
Genetic characteristics take much longer to evolve.
A Parrot can learn to mimic any human language, but a Bulldog will never run like a Greyhound.
Some societies are predisposed to screwing things up.
He said, profoundly and rather drunkenly!
It has always puzzled me that it was Gerhard Schroeder who insisted that Greece be allowed to join the single currency. Apparently he was worried that Greece with its own drachma would be unfair competition for Germany and the others in the eurozone. I still haven’t worked out how much olive oil Germany produces or whether he was worried about the production of Mercedopolis cars. With intellects like his, you can see why the euro was not ever going to work.
What I cannot understand is that the man in the street can see the problems yet politicians are blinded by their own egos. If this is really the case then why does the man in the street bother voting in any of the morons?
I have said it countless times and history will prove me right, the entire crisis has been created by accountants, lawyers and HR people, they are the ones now running governments and banks, real bankers disappeared about 20 years ago to be replaced by pseudo bankers, accountants (Fred Goodwin), lawyers and HR.
RR, and business is the same – and government, for that matter. All of those groups you mentioned are part of a group-think which mistakes process for action, and box-ticking for productivity.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings come into their own again…
Guid eein, Mr Mackie.
I admit that my continental history, German history in particular, is a bit shaky. I feel much more comfortable with East Asia, the UK and the other main English-speaking countries. That said…
Germans in general are not especially well-educated people, much less in regards to 19th century history.
Germans tend to be people who are more focused on work and saving up to go to Ibiza or Mallorca in August each year. The only event which haunts Germany, especially in regards to the EU and the euro, is the 1922-1923 period of hyperinflation. The pictures of people buying loaves of bread with wheelbarrows full of paper money continue to scar the German psyche. People often don’t realise just how deeply the Second World War changed the nature of the German state. There is no desire for an empire, nor is there a desire to expand control. Germany primarily wants stability at any price, even if that price is beyond contemplation.
As for the euro… I stopped by the bank today to buy some Queens to put in my wallet just in case. I’m off to Germany in two weeks. If nothing else, I’m sure I can find a good home for them in Geordieville as our favourite Mustelid is soon to receive another order.
In five years, British people will thank Cameron for his veto. The Euromire is getting deeper by the hour and the Frantic Faux-Frog is resorting to personal abuse.
What is seriously amusing is the frog virulence now they can’t use the City of London as a personal piggy bank to bail out their damned Euros!
They really don’t like us do they?
All the old hostilities right up there bubbling on the surface.
So glad one maintained one’s xenophobia through thick and thin.
Wogs begin at Calais and always will.
The cracks are appearing as each country realises what they have agreed to, a rule by a French dwarf and a German honey monster.
I was out with a Lebanese bank today and thye told me they have received a note from the FSA asking how much exposure they have to the Euro and can they survive if the Euro goes down.
If the Lebanese don’t trust the Euro then it is in a bad way.
I think Open Europe has it right:
http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/
I think you’re right, Christina, about the old hostility. Yet it seems to have reduced French politicians and others like the governor of the Bank of France to showing themselves up. “Please, miss, it’s not fair. Britain’s just as naughty as me, but he’s not losing his AAA rating.” Pathetic.
Don’t worry about FFF, Janus. He has never understood economics and doesn’t know what to say.
I have to be quite honest that I haven’t followed the latest shenanigans in Europe.
I have been aware for some time that there has been a move for fiscal unity within Europe, so that no individual country can pass its own budget. If that happens then the individual countries might just as well give up their national Parliaments – since without control of their national purse-strings no country is independent. It seems that some countries are waking up to that fact.
I rarely disagree with you Christopher – but I think you are wrong when you say that Germany does not want tot expand its control. It may not have joined the Euro for that reason, but now that its currency is under threat, as it was in the 1930s, it is attempting to gain control of the rest of Europe’s finances to avoid a repetition of the 1930’s depression. It isn’t going to work.
It really doesn’t matter that the nature of the German State has changed. The very fact that it is proposing the subjugation of the rest of Europe’s finances to central control – which by virtue of Germany’s relatively strong financial position means control by Germany – will promote the idea that Germany is trying to take over Europe – again.
Boadicea, the latest “shenanigans” in Europe are really depressing. The saying “May you live in interesting times” has become a curse. I feel very sorry for the Germans, though less so for Merkel. I think she is so desperate not to go down in history as the person who destroyed the single currency, and yet equally desperate not to waste more German taxpayers’ money supporting it, that she is fixing her eyes on the future and ignoring the current mess. She has conveniently forgotten that France and Germany were the two eurozone member states who first broke the 3% government deficit rules of the single currency. But of course that didn’t matter, because they were France and Germany. If action had been taken about two years ago – though this would have involved recognition that one size does not fit all – and Greece had been quietly eased out of the single currency, perhaps this horrendous situation which now threatens the entire world’s economy would have been if not not avoided, at least less disastrous. So suddenly the “hag from Mecklenburg” as Christopher calls her finds herself in a tight spot, but now more and more eurozone countries are saying “Hang on a minute!” and Merkel is frantically inviting Britain to observe the next useless summit meeting, having remembered which country is the only other net contributor to the EU besides Germany. I don’t see Fiscal Union happening. I’m not sure the euro will survive until March, when all the details are supposed to have been worked out.
Boadicea: there is a difference between doing something because one wants to and doing something because one feels pressured to. I’ve long been a staunch opponent of the euro and the EU in general.
A modified post-Congress of Vienna order would have been much better for the continent than has come to pass. Germany was bounced into a currency union by France and, to a lesser extent, Italy. Then Germany was left to pay for the bloody mess when things turned sour. Germany’s finances are not that strong, either. Its spending might be largely under control, but the BRD inherited a great amount of debt from the DDR and is still struggling to bring the former East Germany up to the standards of the West. Germany must also face a declining work force and an ageing population with a still largely generous welfare state, not something conducive for a nation’s finances. Merkel, before she was distracted by the euro, was actually trying to get Germany’s financial health back in order. To get to the point at last, what Merkel is doing now is trying to ensure that countries keep their finances in order so that they don’t drag Germany down. Part of the German national character, and one of its biggest, most destabilising flaws, is that it will see things through to the bitter end — even when the futility of the mission is plain to see.
Christopher, Angela is doing what David is doing in fact – defending her country’s interest. Nicolas however will soon have nothing left to defend.
I would think more highly of Merkel if she came out and said “This single currency that France blackmailed us into is not working. Let’s call it a day and get the mess sorted out as neatly as possible.”
Janus: France is a beautiful country with wonderful art, weather, food, and scenery. The language is also beautiful. Shame about the people. Oh well, no place can be perfect.
Sheona: the way we think is Anglo-Saxon/Celtic. If it doesn’t work, change it. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. For Germans things have to be seen through to the bitter end, even if anyone knows how it’s going to be. It’s tragic and has caused countless suffering in Germany and abroad since 1871.
Surely it is obvious to Angela that the single currency doesn’t work and is broken. Following your logic, she should be doing something more constructive than applying Sellotape. Your next sentence seems to contradict the previous one.
Sheona: I think you may have misunderstood my point. Everybody knows that the euro will fail. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Yet Merkel will not give up. Everybody will have to suffer, everybody will have to keep jumping through hoops, keep getting tied-up in ropes, hanged by nooses until it simply cannot go on any further. The limits of what can be done have been reached, that’s why this great new treaty which, frankly, is only enforceable when countries are willing to go along with it, is little more than the original stability pact with teeth. There’s no shift in the paradigm, no fundamental change. It’s just more tape, more sticking-plaster and it will be that until there is no more tape, no more sticking-plaster. It makes no sense, but this is how Germany is.
Christopher – your #18 sounds suspiciously like the age-old German excuse – Befehl ist Befehl – I was only following orders.
Europe has always been driven by fanatical pipsqueaks who wanted to control the rest of the place. WWII had largely abolished this desire, but the nonsensical introduction of the EU, criminally disguised as a free trade area, has encouraged the rats to re-emerge from the woodwork.
I do not believe that any of the “people” in any European country want to influence or control anything beyond their borders, but that does not hold good for their “leaders”.
If Merkel and Sarkozy are not brought to heel, there will be war in Europe again. It is time for Europe to grow up, and to concentrate on things which matter instead of attempting to recreate the glory of past times – which weren’t actually very glorious for most people.
Bearsy: in this case no atrocities have been committed, no gross violations of human rights. It’s pure political nonsense with limited impact on politicians and maximum impact on everyone else. Still, it’s not comparable with the Second World War in which case I would, without hesitation or qualification, condemn it.
Sarkozy will likely meet his Waterloo next year. It’s difficult to be re-elected when one is so far down and so deeply loathed. Merkel is barely holding on to her position. With each Bundesland’s regional election she loses more and more seats in the upper house of parliament. Right now she’s surviving at the sufferance of the opposition which seems content on grinding her down and making her as unpopular as possible before finally preventing anything from passing, something which would force her to request that parliament be dissolved and a new election held.
But isn’t the opposition in Germany even more europhile than Merkel, christopher?
Sheona: yes, they are. That is why they have been co-operative with most of these EU decisions.
On other things they’ve proven a bit more difficult. It seems as if they simply don’t want to be in power when the euro goes down or have to deal with the unpopularity that comes from taking the line that any German government at the moment would have.