Tough Times in EUtopia

The Weekly Standard ^ | 03/30/2009 | Andrew Stuttaford

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The continent's politicians think the undemocratic character of the European Union is a virtue. They have miscalculated.

Sometimes truth just has to speak to powerlessness. Addressing the EU's sham parliament in mid-February, the Czech Republic's refreshingly tactless and refreshingly Thatcherite president, Václav Klaus, raised the awkward topic of what the EU euphemistically refers to as its "democratic deficit" and told MEPs that they were part of this problem, not its solution:

Since there is no European demos-and no European nation-this defect cannot be solved by strengthening the role of the European parliament either. This would, on the contrary, make the problem worse and lead to an even greater alienation between the citizens of the European countries and Union institutions.

Klaus's listeners were predictably outraged. They ought to have been terrified. With the EU economies falling apart at an unprecedented pace, there is nothing that these toy-town parliamentarians can do-except get out of the way.

The EU's insultingly undemocratic nature is not news (indeed, it is part of its rationale), but it remains the key to grasping how those who run the EU have, for better and worse, had so much success in ramming their agenda through. Not having to bother too much about national electorates has been a great boon to Brussels. As the continent's economies slide ever deeper into the mire, however, that once handy feature could end up crashing the entire system.

An economic debacle on the current scale is going to shake any political structure, however securely moored, but the EU's persistent recourse to a form of soft authoritarianism has left it peculiarly ill suited to weather the storm to come.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And this is the model of Governance Obama seems to be striving for.....

[Islander7]

Václav Klaus sounds like a swell guy. He reminds me of another plain spoken man, a man who makes the US leftists go nuts: Dick Chaney.

[aquila48]

“Klaus should be extended US citizenship and maybe our presidency to please.”

Ditto for Geert Wilders - wouldn’t they make a dream ticket!! And I think they were both born in Hawaii!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread...from 2005:

Mark Steyn : Fools’ Paradise

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If they were born in Hawaii,...they could be our new “natural born citizens.”....and replace the one we have now...

[TigerLikesRooster]

The silver lining of the current economic crisis is that liberal hold on power in post-war period could end.

This would be both economic and political reset. Actually, the reset of history.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If the EURO unravels,...the Dollar will be king...

[aquila48]

Exactly!

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Exactly!”

I disagree. I think there is a push to unravel the Euro in favor of a global currency. Might explain why the Chinese and the Russians are pushing this. Our economic outlook is bleak, Europes is just about dead.

I think the statists and elitists are trying to create a new global currency governed by the UN. Maybe it is the US dollar or a variation of it.

It would explain a lot.

[Shady Ray]

Interesting, but I am not sure if the Krauts would go for it...and, of course, the Krauts ARE the Euro.

[1010RD]

My personal hope, as well.

What we are really seeing is the Controller’s Myth coming to an end. The crisis is not with free enterprise, but government.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Right. It is about control(by central bank and governments.) Even many economists believe that economic theory is about providing prescription for controlling economy. They tend to unconsciously resist the possibility that there is definitely the limit to the ability of control. That is, they feel they can and have to turn back any unwanted tide, even if it is astronomical in scale.

[1010RD]

King Canute lives on!

[bert]

You are spot on

Amen

[reformedliberal]

June Forex:

Euro: 133.050
GBP: 143.06
USD Index: 85.58

Since the sneak devaluation of the USD, the USD Index has gone steadily up.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks....how about this chart:

******************************************

Euro May Fold Under ECB Cuts And A Building Recession

**************************EXCERPT***********************

Saturday, 28 March 2009 04:33:06 GMT

Written by John Kicklighter, Currency Strategist

It was a late break for the euro this past Friday; and a meaning full one at that. Against its US counterpart, the European currency finished more than a week of congestion near multi-month highs with a plunge that called into question the underlying health of the euro. This uncertainty is warranted considering the development in fundamentals behind the scenes over the past weeks and months.

[SunkenCiv]

The continent's politicians think the undemocratic character of the European Union is a virtue. They have miscalculated.

It's okay though, because the EU is founded on consensus-building, and of course, in the case of all the Muzzie youths who have burned thousands of in France, community organizing. Thanks Ernest for both pings.