Reading the news about ongoing negotiations among the European Union members regarding the euro currency, I was struck by how clearly Rahm Emmanueal's maxim of "never let a crisis go to waste" applies to these events. Once again, the statists are pushing for increased control by a central government bureacracy; this time the bureaucrats want the power to control spending by member countries of the EU. After all, they say, if the euro is to survive, Europe will need to have a central mechanism to keep each member of the euro zone in line. It does not matter that those wielding power will not be elected by either the people or even the governments of the member countries. The bureaucrats will be experts.
Even the British who are outside the euro zone are getting into the act. Britain does not use the euro, but its approval is needed in order to modify the treaty that governs the EU. As a result, David Cameron the British prime minister has a series of demands that he wants met before Britain will go along with any change in the treaty.
The truth is that market forces which the EU bureaucrats cannot control are ripping the eurozone apart. All of the fixes being discussed are only temporary solutions to the problem. If disaster is sidestepped this time, it will only reappear in a worse form in the future. So long as some of the EU members run entitlement economies with low savings, productivity and performance, the pressure for a split will remain relentlessly in place.
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