The real problem isn’t financial:
A disciplined Teutonic economic order does not suit the French way of life; orderly, inflation-fighting Prussian capitalism is only slightly less horrible than the Anglo-Saxon law of the jungle from a French point of view. At the end of the day, France may simply be incapable of adjusting to the rigors of a German economic style; if so, the question of the nature of the monetary union turns into an irreconcilable contest between two fundamentally different approaches to political economy. Either France (and the rest of the Latins and Greeks) must live under German rules, or the Germans (and the other thrifty and orderly northern countries) must become more like Zorba the Greek.
The inability to square this circle is the real reason it is taking Europe so long to figure out how to deal with the euro crisis. Europe is having an identity crisis — and this is not something that can be settled in a weekend.
Or perhaps ever. At least not peacefully.
We’re having the same fight here in the US, except the battle lines are not so geographically or ethnically obvious.
It’s hard enough for us, as one country, to write laws for us in a country that runs from the cold of AK to the heat and tropical climates of the Gulf Coast and HI. We have sort of one cultural identity as Americans.
There is NO way you can write equitable (or smart) rules, regulations, and set up ONE economic system for an area that runs from the Arctic Circle in Norway to the near desert climate in Greece or Turkey. And all across dozens ethnic and language and cultural boundaries. It’s an idea that won’t work.
UNLESS you are a single Empire like Rome with the ability to make ONE rule for everyone regardless of all the local feelings and be willing to do so with force.
IMHO, if they’d just round up the Jews, Gypsys, and intellectuals and send them to concentration camps, restart the furnaces and deny it. They’d be about where Hitler wanted to go 80 years ago.
It’s hard enough for us, as one country, to write laws for us in a country that runs from the cold of AK to the heat and tropical climates of the Gulf Coast and HI.
That’s why the US is a federal republic.
We have sort of one cultural identity as Americans.
Differences between Europeans are greater, but on the other hand there certainly is something like a feeling of European identity. That’s why the EU is more of a confederation or something looser still.
Der Schtumpty, the Roman Empire FELL. Might I recommend a reading of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?
Countries like Greece remind me of those Occupy Wall Street protestors. They can’t support themselves and demand everyone else maintain them in the lifestyle they’re accustomed to.
Exactly right Larry. What these fools don’t seem to get is that centralization makes your economy less robust with a single point of failure. Making them independent means failures can’t be recovered from by changing local policies and you don’t have to take the more responsible down with.
I don’t think this is any different from California vs Texas.
Rom, Der Schtumpy, they self-identify as Rom. These are things you learn if you have a college education. Or watch a lot of Fox Network television . . .