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Posted on 12/22/2013 6:27:06 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Out of office for more than three decades, Helmut Schmidt has strong views about the state of the European Union that he helped to forge out of the tough economic conditions of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"The state of Europe is problematic. European institutions are not really functioning any more. Why? Because of a lack of leadership."
Schmidt says he is concerned about the "enormous, outlandish" debts of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland and about the lack of jobs for the young.
"We need a better coordination of fiscal policies. We need more solidarity in order to cope with these debts.
"The most immediate danger is youth unemployment, which in some countries is above 50%. This is a timebomb. I remember the youth movement in 1968. It started on American university campuses as a protest against the Vietnam war, then came to Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin. Within a year you had an uprising of youth against their elders. The same could happen as a result of youth unemployment in Greece or Spain. It must not happen but it is a possibility."
Schmidt says it would help the rest of the eurozone if Germany ran down its current account surplus, currently running at 6.5% of national output. "It is a ridiculous, enormous sum. It is larger than the current account surplus of China. It is bigger than that of Japan, Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing countries. If you have a surplus of this size you either have to revalue your currency or, if you can't do that because of the euro, you have to find other ways of reducing it."
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The Euros had better scour out their Muslim infestation before it really is too late.
Exactly the wrong solution to their problems. They need less government control over the economic life of their peoples. They need more capitalism, less taxation, fewer rules, more freedom.
Each nation should follow their own fiscal policies that serve their own people. Forget about the EU amalgamation. It has proven to be a disaster. The best thing the EU could do is to dissolve.
Either that or pay the tab for the little PIIGS.
Citizens of Iceland Overthrow Government Over Bank Fraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3100925/posts
The converse is more likely.
"...European institutions are not really functioning any more. Why? Because of a lack of leadership." ...he is concerned about the "enormous, outlandish" debts of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland and about the lack of jobs for the young... says it would help the rest of the eurozone if Germany ran down its current account surplus, currently running at 6.5% of national output. "...larger than the current account surplus of China. It is bigger than that of Japan, Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing countries..."Thanks DeaconBenjamin.
Problem is, it’s not a lack of leadership, even though leadership is definitely lacking.
The problem is Europers constant drive to reinvent feudalism so they can crawl back into the old romanticist womb.
Europe never managed to crawl out from under an aristocracy. Instead, they simply redefine what constitutes their aristocracy.
The European mindset simply refuses to believe that peasants can make the jump to citizen.
Well said!
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