Some Pact!
EU's fiscal stability pact is coming unravelled. Considering the depths of financial chicanery practised by the Commission and EU member states, the pact is worthless. Burdened by the welfare state, colossal debt and wedded to creative accounting, EU countries are unlikely to aggressively police each other for fear of recompense. Let this be a lesson: states do not discipline themselves. [Full Article]
Comments (2)
EU is in such bad shape that it is selling for $1.30 US.
Published: January 19, 2005 5:06 PM
A 2000 article by historian Niall Ferguson and economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff in the magazine Foreign Affairs predicted that in a decade or so, the Euro is likely to be abandoned. Their article complements Mr. Nülle's article by reaching farther backwards for historical precedents and farther forwards in demographic trends in order to support their conclusions.
History suggests that asymmetric fiscal problems—often generated by war—quickly cause monetary unions between fiscally independent states to dissolve. The fiscal problems caused by bloated social security and pension systems could have a similar centrifugal effect on emu, with welfare substituting for war as the fatal solvent.
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Published: January 19, 2005 10:02 PM