EU Archives - BlackandPaper

There is a visceral disapproval to Donald Trump on the world stage. The US President gets people in emotional state. Whenever I meet friends the is a comment about his policy or what he says. The man in the White House is a piece of work, an entitled vestige of the upper one percent class who knows he is one of the most important presence in the room. Europeans look over the Atlantic with feelings of fear and moral superiority. Oh,,,,denial is lifestyle until reality hits the face.

When I first came to Europe there was a sense of optimism. The false sense of European Identity was everywhere. Nationalism at look last was dead. The EU economies were moving forward in the time of prosperity and open borders and soon a single currency. Pax Europa had arrived with Brussels as the capital.

2018, Europe is in crisis with the political class clinging to power by all its finger nails. The political class reacts more out of desperation than inspiration. Greece has been beaten into economic 3^rdworld submission by Euro Champions. Immigration is testing even the most liberal societies. Right Wing movements have slowed, but not stopped.

The United Kingdom will leave the EU in one form or another in 2019 if the politicians can stop jockeying out of self interests. May has proven to be a constant humiliated character held with low regard by all. Brexit could have been avoided had pragmatism with imagination been used with a bit of humility. But instead Barnier, Tusk, Juncker, and the Euro Politicians decided on punishment, to show the other countries in the club, “don’t get any ideas”. Reference popular uprisings in Eastern Europe, Eurocrats could soon learn what the Soviets discovered in 1989. The system did not fall because the Communist were tired of ruling.

Today, at the time of writing France is gripped by riots that could manifest into full scale civil war. The genie is out of the bottle. Pent up rage has once again exploded on the French streets. When I am in Paris, I marvel at the city, splendor, the charm, the stores, the romantic ideas. But underneath, I often wonder, how do people afford to live here? 8 euros for a cafe in the center, my morning Monster energy drink was 3 euros. I made that one can last for 3 days.

A former banker with the 5.200 euro monthly make up and hair bill was not what he promised. The French believe themselves to be the intellectual class of Europe, a society of sophistication and all things worldly. How could their society get conned by a novice, a media charlatan like the unpolished Americans? A good slogan works, “Together France.”

Electing a former member of the financial circle as head of state then expecting sympathy is a bit naive or desperate. This is familiar to USA in 2016.

Macron’s first legislative act, tax cuts for the wealthy, a few, followed by fuel tax hike, for everyone. Then the standard neoliberal economic phrase, “reform the economy”. This usually means the working class gets less, the corporate class gets more. Like his UK and Brussels elite counterparts, the ambitious leader wants to lead an “Enlighten Europe” with a view from the clouds, out of touch from the mere people who put him in office. Is there any wonder there are violent country wide protests? The Yellow Vest movement has spread to Belgium and The Netherlands.

As I say, it is easier to look out the window than in the mirror. Europe has its high moral plateau made of wet cardboard.

Has the Euro become a one way love affair? An affair capable of strangling democracy for the cause of a flawed path wrapped in hubris. Journalist and Authors Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson examine in their book, Europe Isn’t Working, the inception, birth, and growth of a fairy tale currency planned to bring unity, jobs, and prosperity to the continent but instead has morphed into a economic straight jacket of uncertainty. How did so many smart people get it so wrong?

The Black and Paper Interview.

Can you explain the European left remained silent while Greece was forced into economic and political submission?

I would suggest that the awful truth proved by the Greek debacle – that there was nothing remotely progressive about the single currency – was simply too much to bear.

With the UK leaving the EU, has the Eurozone been placed in a corner regarding Greece? There is no option but for Greece to stay in the Zone.

I do not think there was ever much prospect of Greece leaving the euro, although a debt default was certainly on the cards for a while. We hear that the Greek government is unhappy with Brexit but it ought to ask why it is that it will not and never has countenanced leaving the euro.

How did the Euro evolve into a Neo-Liberal Trojan Horse?

It bore the imprint of the times in which it was created, the high water-mark of the free-market era. Furthermore, the currency was dreamed up by central bankers in cahoots with commercial bankers and industrialists, so its character is not all that surprising.

You wrote that the Technocrats are more interested in the financial class than the middle class. France just forced through new labour reform laws, is this legislation an example?

Yes, probably. From the outset, the euro-zone members have been told they need to “reform” their “sclerotic” welfare states. That was a big sell” for the euro for banking and big busness.

There are some bad guys and one lady in particular in your book, Merkel. She is credited with being a stabilizing force in Europe but according to you she has been the opposite. Can you expand on this?

Anyone who tries to strengthen the euro-zone is a force for instability simply because the euro is itself a force for instability. Mrs Merkel is no better or worse in this regard than other leaders, she is simply more powerful, thus generates more instability.

The Italian Job, presently, there are rumblings concerning Italian Banks and their level of exposure. Is this the next Euro Zone Crisis? How do you expect Monti to handle this?

We have been told on and off for five years that Italian banks would be the next domino to fall. It may happen, but if not there then another chunk of masonry in the euro-zone – to mix metaphors – will surely fall off.

After Brexit, the EU institutions have dug in and decided to maintain course, was this a surprise?

No. The EU proceeds by failure. The common market didn’t work so we “needed” a single market. That didn’t work, so we “needed” a single currency. That doesn’t work so the euro-zone “needs” a single fiscal policy. When that fails, the euro-zone will “need” a single government.

European Union officials appear as guilty as their American counterparts as far as the corporate revolving door; Barroso was hired by Sachs, what happened to the outcry?

I don’t really have a view on this. Larry? EU leaders are just as keen as jumping on the gravy train as US leaders. I would say the anti-establishment, anti-elite sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic has been fueled by the idea that the people at the top have done all right for themselves while ordinary people have not.

With many countries in stagnation in the Eurozone: France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Finland, why is there still a romance with the Euro?

I refer you to some of the enclosing words of our book:

At the end of Europe’s tormented 20^th Century, scarred by the Great War, the Depression, the Second World War, the Holocaust and the Cold War, a visible, tangible symbol of the continent’s renaissance was at hand. Who with even a scrap of idealism could resist its charms?

We go on to say that it is always a bad idea to invest what are bits of economic machinery with emotional force. One should simply ask whether the mechanism works or not. The euro does not.

I will post my book review shortly. To obtain a copy of Europe Isn’t Working go to your local bookstore or order from Amazon.com