Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Greek Election Bears a Gift for Europe?

Euro Sign of the Times
NYT Image

Everyone's asking about the meaning of the recent Greek vote. Markets swung up high and down low in confused reaction. Let me clarify this for the markets. The Greek vote tells us that misery loves company. Why fail alone when you can fail with about half a billion other folks?

But will the EU really fail?

Success requires more centralization in monetary, fiscal, and political terms, but that would demand each state to give up individual sovereignty, which they might all be loath to do. The future of the EU may have just come down to a democratic vote in Greece, but the voices urging more centralization might insist that the technocrats take charge for now, with a promise of greater democracy for the EU further down the road toward stability.

That would be a risky promise to bank upon.

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14 Comments:

At 8:48 AM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

"Success requires more centralization in monetary, fiscal, and political terms"


??????????????????????

 
At 10:08 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Kevin, you seem to have a question.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 1:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It might look like a beautiful and egalitarian idea to include everyone in a group, but in reality it's just utopian. Some simply won't fit. Now we're all paying for this. Maybe a 10-15 year of a trial membership would help to recognize the value and real intentions of the candidates. The good in bad is, that all the troubles shaking Europe these days will make the lawmakers think twice before they decide to embrace Turkey as a new EU member. Besides, at present they seem to do better on their own :)

Jacek

 
At 1:57 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

I used to imagine Turkey would fit in, but that was when the country seemed to want to be Western, which it seems not to want anymore.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 2:07 PM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

As usual, you are a keen EU observer.

The passage on "the technocrats [who should] take charge for now, with a promise of greater democracy" is sadly funny.

 
At 2:17 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

I'm so keen-eyed, I got Eurovision.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 3:20 PM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

meanwhile, "We don't need another Euro!" --Tina Turner

 
At 3:34 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Right, what the EU needs is the Archimedian point where enough euros can be leveraged to fund the entire European Project, and when that is found, some postmodern Archmedes will cry out, "Euroka! I have funded it!"

Jeffery Hodges

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At 3:41 PM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

hmm, it is more likely that the whole project will meet the same end as the eUrus.

 
At 3:48 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

I'm lost in the mists on this playful allusion . . .

Jeffery Hodges

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At 9:42 PM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

Urus, or aurochs, an extinct species of bull :-)

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Bull will never be extinct . . .

Jeffery Hodges

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At 4:31 AM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

... nor will his s**t in this world, alas!

:-D

 
At 7:47 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

The smeller's the feller!

Jeffery Hodges

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