World events

Wax? Why would he use wax in the first place?

I am sorry. Here's the antidote.

HAhah when i saw her, i thought "Steven".

Piss off Steven....MINE!!!!

In fact (mostly) Germany and France are questioning that all the time. And it is a matter of grave concern that the UK has not adopted the Euro...but they considered the pound to be more stable at the time, linked as it was to the dollar.

Obviously there's been the occasional second thought, but historically (and we're talking quite literally a millennium here...) the hate-love-necessity split relationship between mainland Europe and the UK remains as problematic politically as it's always been.

At this time a Realpolitik-ish approach of "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" seems to have been adopted, and I guess that's the best we can do for the moment.



That's because they actually didn't add anything to the treasuries. Quite the contrary: it's agriculture that is the biggest drain on the EU's funds: farming subsidies have been insane (which is actually France's fault: they forced the EU into basically funding their own rural areas. The south of Europe has just been along for the ride). Tourism has never done anything for the EU. That's solely a local affair, boosting local economies.

Without any judgement, it's a very simple fact (just check the figures) that it's the southern European countries that have benefitted immensely from the EU. Which is fine: I think for a viable economic union, there should be a balance in financial streams. (Not that we have that: it's a fucking shambles. But that's another discussion).

My beef with Greece is simply that they lied. Knowingly and willingly they provided wrong figures to suggest compliancy with Euro standards, while they've been failing dramatically for years.
It's that attitude that truly threatens stability because it undermines faith in the system. Current thinking in psycho-economics (a fascinating young science that links psychological human aspects to economic developments and theories) is that this is eactly the attitude that destroys a stable market.



But that's not what the EU is about: it's not a supranational government! It simply doesn't have the power or the mandate to do anything of the kind! The EU is -in many ways- a very immature and insecure federal cooperation, that still has a lot (and I mean a LOT) of issues and deficiencies (like any kind of measure to deal with rogue governments).

I have always been very much pro-EU, and remain so, because I honestly believe it is the proper way forward eventually.
But I am realistic enough to see that we won't see any kind of proper efficiency in MY lifetime.

My arms gone deaf.

The decline and fall of the British pound.

Woo, yeah! Go Britain!

Think about this: As Martijn said, EU is not the big loving pappa, he accepts members for a reason. Now that some members are bearing problems either due to external or internal factors or even due to their own immaturity or plain stupidity, they're beating them with a stick on the head. Don't believe the hype and the overkill in the media. Of course there's problems, nobody is denying that. But at the fragile state the Euro is as we speak - but also the worldwide economy altogether, he who shall intimidate and scream on the other might eventually succeed in demolishing the other's economy completely. Survival of the Fittest, one of the most basic rules in nature.

I think you may be confusing cause and effect, D.
It's the Euro that's had an immense constructive effect on tourism within the Euro zone, not the other way around.

And agricultural export has nought to do with the Euro. I'm not sure why you brought that up?
The main effect is that a unified Euro zone (with one single rate of inflation and unified prices, both of which have caused increased trade within the Euro zone by 10%!) has hugely increased stability of the Euro coin. And that is the huge advantage in an until then dollar-run world!

A currency's stability such as the Euro, provenly depends on the state of the markets (see what happened last and this year due to market instability). If some countries' primal industry is Tourism and Agriculture, such as Italy, Spain and Greece, then it means that their market is a whole chain whose stability primarily resorts on those 2 industries. If they have stable markets, they positively affect the Euro too, since they're in the Eurozone.

Spain, Italy and Greece have seen an increase in tourism of about 6% since the Euro.

Interesting that you quote a "black and white" philosophy article from English sources, which have nothing to do with the Euro in the first place. Nobody's guaranteeing the rise of the Euro once Greece is bailed out. Instead of focusing on the black sheep which has always been the easy solution, Europe should perform self-criticism and especially investigate those who are constantly undermining the Eurozone's stability, such as Britain to name but one. EU should look at the deep, real reasons behind the unrest and not on the what appears to be the cause in the surface.