Tuesday.....International.....Road To Serfdom

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, an architect of the European Community and staunch supporter of the efforts to prop up Greece, spoke to a gathering which included Angela Merkel and said that defense of the Euro amounted to the difference between war and peace. The New York Times reported that President Obama is pressuring Merkel and others to try something big. It is being recommending that the European Union take powers upon themselves for the economies of the individual states. A bit of a reprimand was given that they hem-hawed too long on the Greece bailout. President Obama advised her that these steps were politically difficult steps that he had taken himself. And don't we understand the implications of that?  Right now the European Union does not share a single treasury, tax system or budgetary authority. Quoting a senior official in our government, you have to convince people that the government will get its act together. Negotiations between these European states are going on constantly at this time and the latest proposal agreed upon is the forming of a special purposes vehicle that would provide loans and those only to last for three years (right!). Some states balked at the proposal but agreed only if the European Commission not control the vehicle but only manage it (you can bank on that!.) This is an additional trillion dollar proposal which is being touted as the shock and awe Europe needs. The normal criticisms are there that you cannot loan more to governments that cannot pay what they owe now, but they are going unheeded. Europe is taking advice from those over here who gave us a debt that cannot be repaid, at least without full governmental control of our lives. One has to feel sorry for Angela Merkel, for Margaret Thatcher had the advice and support of Ronald Reagan while she has Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner. For some serious reading, the link below is a well-regarded description on where we are going.