"Europe’s leaders are evidently hoping to use the shadow of impending crisis to speed the process to promote a new European Union treaty to enforce budget discipline."
Problem, reaction, solution again?!?!!
“We are using the crisis as an opportunity for a renewal.’’
9/11 was also referred to as an "opportunity."
"Debt crisis redefines sovereignty in EU; Nations exchange control for greater financial stability" December 11, 2011|By Raf Casert, Associated Press
BRUSSELS - Sovereignty isn’t what it used to be - just ask two dozen nations in Europe.
In a fundamental shift agreed upon in the dead of night, most of continental Europe has decided to cede a surprising amount of control over how it spends its money to an ill-defined pan-European body. And this just weeks after two of the countries - Greece and Italy - replaced their leaders because of pressure from foreign investors.
Even the Dutch prime minister, whose nation has spent centuries building barriers to protect its people from the sea, says it’s a brave new world: “You cannot,’’ said Mark Rutte, “stay behind the dikes.’’
Related: Dutch bishops apologize for abuse after report is issued
Britain, a fiercely independent island nation, was the only country insisting on keeping full control over its finances.
This is what three years of financial chaos have wrought....
European Union leaders said Friday that 26 of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Under the deal, member states would have to put the way they spend their money under tight surveillance by the EU and face the possibility of sanctions if they stray financially.
For the rest, it all means a significant abandonment of self-determination.
“It is a fundamental step forward, but anybody who believes that within nation states we still control our sovereignty is deeply mistaken,’’ said Piotr Maciej Kaczynski of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
The European Union once abounded with lofty egalitarian visions of small nations carrying the same relative weight in the EU as big countries to create a better future.
Now there are fears that everybody will be forced to walk the line set out by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose close cooperation has turned them into a new political animal: “Merkozy.’’ Friday’s deal might have been a tipping point in European history.
Where once empires and powerful kingdoms ruled, the 19th century gradually spread a quilt of nation states over the continent. It was the order of the day until not so very long ago, giving people a sense of identity and common bond within each nation, often juxtaposed against its neighbors.
Up to now, with each step of a more united Europe, the sense of loss of sovereignty seemed marginal, the advantages largely outweighing the near invisible loss.
But everything changes when money is involved.
On top of the EU impact, globalization and a never-sleeping financial market have further diminished the clout of sovereignty.
In Greece, former prime minister George Papandreou was forced to resign after his shock announcement of a referendum on a European bailout spooked markets and the European Union.
Related: Markets Pick Papademos to Govern Greece
Also see: Globe Gives Greece the Answer
It's the same for you, America.
The same goes for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s flamboyant former premier, who was widely seen by investors as an obstacle to urgent steps to save his nation’s economy....
And now he's gone?
Related: Markets Appoint Monti to Manage Italy
Also see: Monti the New Mussolini
Did I call it or what?
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British coalition next to go?
"British PM David Cameron criticized on pact rejection" December 12, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - The British prime minister’s rejection of an accord to quell Europe’s debt crisis generated cracks in his Cabinet yesterday, sparking sharp criticism from the junior partners in his coalition, the Liberal Democrats....
They finally speak up and it is in defense of globalists and bankers?
Prime Minister David Cameron’s move brought an extraordinarily scathing reaction from his deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who said yesterday that he was “bitterly disappointed’’ in Cameron’s decision.
He added the move could now isolate Britain in Europe and make it a “pygmy in the world.’’
Also see: Clegg's Crap
That's usually what you get from controlled opposition.
“This is bad for Britain,’’ Clegg said in a lengthy BBC interview yesterday. “Euro-skeptics should be careful what they wish for.’’ He added that Britain was now close to becoming a nation “hovering somewhere in the mid-Atlantic and not being taken seriously in Europe.’’
Clegg’s comments did not appear to put the government in immediate jeopardy. He said it would be wrong for the Liberal Democrats to consider withdrawing from the coalition. But his remarks suggested just how deeply the debt crisis in Europe has begun to rattle politics in Britain, a country that has jealously guarded the British pound and eschewed the euro....
Cameron was under pressure to take a tough stance by an increasingly powerful bloc of anti-EU lawmakers in his Conservative Party, where some are even calling for a referendum on whether London should completely withdraw from the union.
His decision brought swift praise from leading euro-skeptic Conservatives, including his foreign minister, William Hague.
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But did he please the bankers?
"Britain ponders the City’s future" December 12, 2011|By Landon Thomas Jr., New York Times
LONDON - Has Prime Minister David Cameron hurt Britain’s powerful financial services industry more than he has helped it? Many bankers and economists are pondering that question after Cameron’s surprising decision to leave Britain out of a historic accord aimed at moving Europe closer to political as well as monetary union.
Cameron said the pact lacked safeguards to protect the City of London, Britain’s Wall Street, against future regulations that might not be in the City’s best interests. And because France and Germany would not bend on his proposed protections, he would not sign on to their plan for more tightly coordinated oversight of European Union governments’ revenue and spending.
Now, though, some in Britain worry that the nation’s ability to halt or shape what is expected to be a wave of future financial regulation from European Union headquarters will be severely constrained if Britain does not have a seat at the negotiating table. So it remains to be seen whether the City financiers Cameron wanted to protect will end up feeling grateful - or marginalized.
Few believe that his decision represents an immediate and mortal blow to the City’s ambition to remain a center of international finance....
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"British opposition hurts chances for EU deal; Markets uneasy as a quick fix to debt crisis appears unlikely" December 13, 2011|By David Stringer and Frances Emilio, Associated Press
LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron defended his actions in the House of Commons yesterday, telling UK lawmakers the fiscal pact that envisions using the EU’s executive arm as a budget watchdog could face even more political hurdles. He was greeted with cheers from his own euroskeptic Conservatives but jeers from opposition lawmakers.
“The choice was a treaty without proper safeguards or no treaty and the right answer was no treaty,’’ Cameron said. “It was not an easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.’’
Yes, doing what is right for your nation and people is tough.
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How many euros you got?
"Euro 10th anniversary celebrated quietly" by Nicholas Kulish | New York Times, January 01, 2012
BERLIN - Ten years later, the word “euro’’ in a headline is usually paired with the word “crisis.’’ Instead of hosting celebrations for the anniversary, policy makers appear to be staying as quiet as possible, as if hoping not to upset the brief calm that has come after European central bankers injected nearly $640 billion into the European banking system in December.
Also see: European banks get $644b in loans
Europe's own TARP.
In Brussels, there will be neither a ceremony nor even a news conference to mark the occasion. That set the tone for other countries, many of which were doing the minimum: preparing to circulate a 2-euro commemorative coin for the anniversary.
Even without the crisis, the day 10 years ago may be one better quickly forgotten. Far more than the celebrations, what stuck in the minds of consumers after changing to the euro was the rounding up of prices at supermarkets, restaurants, and bars.
Economists say that the increases were exaggerated and offset by declining prices for bigger-ticket items. But the narrative of opportunistic price-gouging on daily staples has grown rather than shrunk in the collective memory. And the perception is widespread in the eurozone that the cost of living has increased significantly as a result of its adoption....
And they sold it to you a being good for everybody, 'member?
The euro has conjured little of the affection or patriotism that the dollar evokes in the United State, no nickname comparable to the greenback. The fondest memories are reserved for the old national currencies....
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Time for me to bail for a bit for slave service; however, I will return later this evening.
