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European Union Implosion
various FR links & stories
| 06-17-05
| the heavy equipment guy
Posted on 06/17/2005 1:57:25 PM PDT by backhoe
============================================
First, required background reading:
You can read the entire EWWW Constitution
HERE
If you really want to. It has over 400 articles...one of the most interesting is that the "EWWW" can take away your personal property if it is in the public interest...compensation is optional...like taking your house, guns, cars etc... Just how high will their unemployment rates go before they realize you can't tax yourselves into freedom. Too many deadbeats, too much time off, too much socialism over there...
============================================
From the beginning:
============================================
Reverse chronological order, latest first:
Myth and Reality in the EU: "Europe" is dead. Long live Europe. --
He really seemed to believe that the EU was the product of some kind of spontaneous moment of enlightened European statesmanship, which by pure chance occurred sometime in the late 1940s, rather than of Germany's annihilation as a military power, American dominance in Western Europe and the Soviet menace.
Why Did the French and Dutch Vote No? Because they were asked, for a change. --
The only part of the 485-page constitution that anyone will henceforth need to remember--although it is the part that people all over Brussels are now trying to forget--is Article IV, section 447.
That passage stipulates that the constitutional treaty is not valid unless all countries of the E.U. ratify it. There is no putting a brave face on what has happened: The E.U.'s attempt to bind itself constitutionally into an ever closer union has, for the foreseeable future, failed.
Bloggers take on European elites -- What's interesting is that we have come almost full circle. 200 years ago most of politics was local. 1:1, townhall style. Blogs are the modern day electronic version of a townhall where people are reconnected again.
Rather empowering actually. The elites with their printing presses and their TV stations and radio stations are not the only ones with the ability to sway opinions now.
European Civilisation Has Sown the Seeds of Its Own Decline and Fall (Should be required reading!) -- An excellent analysis. But it omits a couple of crucial factors. First, birth control and abortion. The European crisis is largely a demographic crisis. Muslims are flooding in because Europeans wanted cheap workers to replace the children they didn't have.
Second, it omits the corruption among the ruling classes in France, Belgium and elsewhere. Europe didn't really stay out of Iraq because they had no military. They stayed out of Iraq because they had corrupt deals with Saddam, as represented by Total-Fina-Elf and the UN Oil for Food program.
"Europe as a whole) desperately needs a Reagan or a Thatcher to straighten out the mess."
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: eurofreude
I strongly suspect the repercussions of this affair will be deeper, and more widespread, than many imagine. Stay tuned...
1
posted on
06/17/2005 1:57:26 PM PDT
by
backhoe
To: backhoe
"The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read."
Sir Winston Churchill
But they will blame America for their folly.
To: backhoe
I think you are correct.
A large part of the economic strength of Europe overall came from some of the unique characteristics that each countries laws brought to the larger picture.
There is nothing meaner than a European bureaucrat!
3
posted on
06/17/2005 2:04:26 PM PDT
by
Pylot
To: Pylot; ncountylee
Thanks for stopping by- appreciate the comments.
4
posted on
06/17/2005 2:16:46 PM PDT
by
backhoe
(-30-)
To: backhoe
Alot of work went into that backhoe, thanks.
Bookmarked.
5
posted on
06/17/2005 2:49:40 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
To: Pylot
Q: What happens when EU doesn't pay their garbage bill?
A: They stop delivering.
Q: Why does the EU use a lot of bleach on their sheets?
A: So you can see their white flags better.
Don't Forget to Boycott French Goods!
6
posted on
06/17/2005 2:51:04 PM PDT
by
FreeRep
To: pbrown
Thanks for looking... I tend to get crosseyed and a little goofy towards the end of compiling a set of links like these- they all start looking & sounding alike. But these are the best- a fuller list is in the keywords.
I do hope Europe tosses off the shackles of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic gang of micromanagers in Brussels. In any event, it will be interesting to watch as it unfolds.
7
posted on
06/17/2005 2:55:35 PM PDT
by
backhoe
(-30-)
To: backhoe
I do hope Europe tosses off the shackles of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic gang of micromanagers in Brussels. In any event, it will be interesting to watch as it unfolds. Very interesting.
I wish I could fast forward a couple of years to see how it all came out. I'm such a impatient woman.
8
posted on
06/17/2005 3:03:02 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
To: pbrown
I'm such a impatient woman.Bless you- I'm married to one of those, and I'm waiting for her to get home from the salt mines and stick an iced Rolling Rock in her hand ( to calm her down! ) before dinner.
9
posted on
06/17/2005 3:23:33 PM PDT
by
backhoe
(-30-)
To: backhoe
and I'm waiting for her to get home from the salt mines and stick an iced Rolling Rock in her hand ( to calm her down! ) before dinner.Thank you.
She's a very lucky woman. :-)
10
posted on
06/17/2005 5:35:24 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
To: All
11
posted on
06/18/2005 3:07:33 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the trakball into the Dawn of Information...)
To: All
12
posted on
06/18/2005 5:24:32 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the trakball into the Dawn of Information...)
To: backhoe
To: martin_fierro
Why the EU failed.I'll get you for that, O lilly-livered, egg-sucking dawg...
( But unfortunately, I have a similar warped sense of humor, gawd help me... )
14
posted on
06/18/2005 10:53:38 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the trakball into the Dawn of Information...)
To: All
15
posted on
06/19/2005 6:50:32 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the trakball into the Dawn of Information...)
To: All
16
posted on
06/27/2005 12:33:05 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(-30-)
To: All
17
posted on
08/03/2005 12:18:49 AM PDT
by
backhoe
To: All
18
posted on
11/07/2005 12:28:24 PM PST
by
backhoe
(No Society is more than Two Meals away from a Revolution...)
To: All
It took longer than I thought it would- but "the market" has finally decided:
IRWIN STELZER predicts a coming Euro-zone crackup: its a fine, short, and brisk analysis of the political economy of the EU. The cold facts, says Stelzer, are these:
- Greece, Ireland, and Portugal are now frozen out of credit markets. The yield on Greek two-year bonds is 24 percent and on both Irish and Portuguese bonds of similar maturity around 12 percent. No country can afford to borrow at those rates. Of interest to the White House and Congress might be the speed with which the markets move: Interest rates charged on Greek debt increased by 10 percentage points in the past month.
- The debt burden on these countries is in excess of the 90 percent of GDP that scholars now agree stifles growth. Portugals debt is at 90 percent of its GDP and rising, Greeces is approaching 150 percent, and Irelands debt now appears to be bigger, in relation to its economy, than the reparations imposed on Germany after the First World War, according to economist Anatole Kaletsky.
- These economies cannot grow their way out of the problem. The Greek economy shrank at an annual rate of 4.5 percent last year and is forecast to decline this year at 3.2 percent. Portugals will shrink at an annual rate of 1.5 percent, guesses the International Monetary Fund. And Ireland, despite a robust export industry and a corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent that, at half the EU average, remains attractive to foreign investment, might eke out growth of 1 percent. No way these growth rates produce enough tax revenues to meet debt obligations.
One of the many problems of the risk models used in the run-up to the debt crisis was the assumption of smooth, continuous rises and falls in the price of debt. But institutions, whether firms or sovereigns, tend to grow incrementally, financial instrument by financial instrument and crash by institution.
Hattip: Instapundit
19
posted on
05/09/2011 12:25:47 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(Just an Old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the trakball into the Twilight...)
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