A federal europe is now 'inevitable’

[Locutus]

ALL the eurozone nations will be forced into a single federal government to avoid future economic meltdowns, Europe’s finance chief said yesterday.


Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, predicted that Germany, France and the 15 other single currency nations will have little choice but to merge into a single political unit.
“I think that one day the European people will have a confederation,” Trichet told a conference in Paris.
“If a country doesn’t take or is incapable of taking the required decisions, it should be possible to take them from the centre of the single currency.
“One can imagine a federal government.”





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Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: A federal Europe is now 'inevitable’

 

[mentalfloss]

Are there votes on this sort of thing?

 

[Andem]

This will never happen. Everytime anybody ever tried to pull this, we ended up fighting in two world wars and before that, continent-wide wars. The only powerful country in the Eurozone is Germany, Germany is not going to pick up the tabs of all of the irresponsible governments of Europe. France thinks they are on equal economic footing with Germany or even the UK, but that notion is laughable... especially when they try to use the 'clout' to force our hand in bowing to their views on Europe, the EU, the Eurozone and ultimately the world.

Germany is done with the Eurozone and if we had an easy opt-out option, we'd take it. All that is left of the Euro and the Eurozone is the strange dreams of France and the bankrupt southern countries of Europe riding on the back of German economic power.

If the euro were to continue, it would ONLY make sense if it included only Northern Europe, while excluding France.

 

[taxslave]

Don't bet on it. More like Germany and France will withdraw from this socialist money pit. They have had enough of bailing out irresponsible spendthrifts that think that they are entitled to their entitlements. It was a nice idea but not financially viable because of the difference in economic capabilities of the member countries.

 

[relic]

I think it's pretty funny,now Germany has a chance to buy Europe,and doesn't want it.

 

[TenPenny]

Don't bet on it. More like Germany and France will withdraw from this socialist money pit. They have had enough of bailing out irresponsible spendthrifts that think that they are entitled to their entitlements. It was a nice idea but not financially viable because of the difference in economic capabilities of the member countries.

I thought France was a socialist money pit.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Europe will become more of a federation, it's just a matter of how. They knew when Greece joined they were admitting an economic basketcase as the country doesn't pay taxes or have anything resembling an efficient govt, they could barely get the Olympics done.

But Europe is a place where politics tends to precail over economics. Think of the times, post 1990, the fall of communism, the end of superpower rivalry and Europe as the battleground for World War lll, and Gorbachev spoke of "a common European home." So there was eurphoria in Europe at the time. Then the drachma, Europe's oldest currency was being brought into the EU, well, it was a no brainer. This is where history lives and they want it to live.

A continent, racked by war for centuries, had peace, anything was possible. And there's no war now right? And no one wants to fight anybody anywhere in Europe. And, what's the alternative? American style laissez-faire economics are over and there's no stopping the European experiment. Whatever it is exactly, it's continuing.

 

[petros]

Europe will become more of a federation, it's just a matter of how. They knew when Greece joined they were admitting an economic basketcase as the country doesn't pay taxes or have anything resembling an efficient govt, they could barely get the Olympics done.

Just like BC.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Just like BC.

Three tiny words, hard to tell what you mean.

Anyone notice that DSK, the French guy accused of race in New York, with the charges dropped, who was head of the IMF is a socialist? Anyone think about the IMF, a strongly right wing organization that supports free market economics, is led by a "socialist'? Would that happen here, to have some like Jack Layton head the IMF? Never.

Europe's socialism is much different from our socialism, which is all about taxes, theirs is a different variety.

 

[petros]

Hookers and cocaine. The absolute best way to set someone up. It's been done hundreds of times in the political arena.

As for Socialists. Canada and the Cons very much are Socialist. Stimulus stimulus stimulus and transfer payments ALL Socialist.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Just like BC. You mean the 2010 Olympics. They cost billions but they were a success. I found out the federal govt had no plan to give money to successful athletes, they essentially just randomly gave money away to good athletic lobbyists. Own the Podium program set up by Vanoc, reorganized Cdn athletic performance, so the ones who had a chance of success would get funds, and the also-rans would get nothing. Funding athletes who were happy with a personal best that was 45th in the world, stopped.

Past pathetic Olympic performances by our athletes had the world laughing at us. Now the mirth has stopped. The BC and Canada Games are for socializing-which I totally support, not top flight world class events where competition is ruthless.

 

[petros]

Where do you think the cash to pay for it all came from?

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

We're getting way off the topic of Europe here, and this q being asked is glaringly obvious.

Make a new thread. Last response by me. There's too much hijacking of threads at CC.

 

[Colpy]

I can see the headlines now in Truth News:

GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE: NO SHOTS FIRED

Third Time Is a Charm

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

I can see the headlines now in Truth News:

GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE: NO SHOTS FIRED

Third Time Is a Charm

Don't we love Germany, they're just like us really. They know how to make jobs. They failed in earlier times to conquer Europe because they had a two front war. Now they wish to use iron fiscal discipline to be victorious. Might work.

 

[WLDB]

I can see the headlines now in Truth News:

GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE: NO SHOTS FIRED

Third Time Is a Charm

Guns and bombs didnt seem to work for them the first couple times. A Russian winter wont stop their economy from expanding. Maybe an underground resistance in France composed of small independent business owners will form. The Swiss, as usual, will just watch.

 

[taxslave]

I can see the headlines now in Truth News:

GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE: NO SHOTS FIRED

Third Time Is a Charm

Only if they can figure a way out of the unfunded pension liabilities of all the losers.

 

[captain morgan]

Maybe an underground resistance in France composed of small independent business owners will form. The Swiss, as usual, will just watch.

Won't work; the small independent business owners will be squarely behind the German fiscal model.

What you'll need are a small army of Greek Welfare Commandos to infiltrate and coerce the Germans to give bigger hand-outs... We can call it the War of Entitlements.

 

[WLDB]

Won't work; the small independent business owners will be squarely behind the German fiscal model.

What you'll need are a small army of Greek Welfare Commandos to infiltrate and coerce the Germans to give bigger hand-outs... We can call it the War of Entitlements.

Or Reparations for WW2

 

[Bar Sinister]

Don't bet on it. More like Germany and France will withdraw from this socialist money pit. They have had enough of bailing out irresponsible spendthrifts that think that they are entitled to their entitlements. It was a nice idea but not financially viable because of the difference in economic capabilities of the member countries.

Somehow I doubt that two nations with a much larger level of social programs than Canada are going to flee their socialist neighbours. Germany and France are committed to the EU for several reasons:
1. European unity is a refreshing change from centuries of killing one another
2. Only by acting as one can the EU hope to compete with the massive US economy and the emerging economies of China, India, and Brazil.
3. The current EU economy is now so tightly interwoven that any attempt to dismantle it would be disastrous for all nations - it would literally be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

That said, obvious reforms need to me made to make the EU function more efficiently; and no doubt they will be made. Too often what is overlooked is the the creation of the EU from the war-shattered nations of Europe was a grand experiment, and it is an experiment that is still developing. Eventually the Europeans will figure out what works and what doesn't, but it will take time. After all, the Americans still have not been able to figure out how to run their economy and they have had a lot longer to work on it.