1 This is a very good thing. The fact that France, Denmark, Sweden and others have rejected the Euro and a unified Europe is wonderful news. The Euro is promoted by those who want to set up a socialist one-world government, a single currency, and a single religion around the world. This is the objective of the UN and those who back it, like the Demarais family, Maurice Strong, and others. In Canada the Liberal Party supports it and are dong the bidding of the Demaraises, et al, and they are further along than in the US. Here they've already gaken our guns away from us and created a gimme, socialist mindset that has kep't the Liberal Party in power for the last twelve years. God help us if we don't stop this soon.

2 Good gravy man - the only thing you left out was the Bildebergers. Your tinfoil hat needs replacing, because radiation is clearly leaking in...

3 Did you mean a single "no religion"?

4 "It is just inconceivable that a country could envisage dropping out of the euro," said Jean-Claude Juncker Memo to Jean-Claude: I do not think that word means what you think it means. (if it truly is beyond J-C's conceptual abilities, that says more about Juncker's thought processes and less about the monetary system)

5 Jay. Perhaps. They actually want to do away with all religion but they talk about a "single religion", whatever that means.

6 Member of opposition party in Italy says something stupid and the world is supposed to see it as proof of the collapse of the EU and the ECC? Geeze, don't jump the gun here or anything. Americans and the British don't get their hearts all aflutter everytime Jack Layton or Gilles Duceppe says or does something dumb in Canada. (Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but i think that the Northern League is the sovreginitist /separtist party that wants to take everything North of Rome and form a new country- you know, one without those Scilans screwing everything up. yeah, that's great) Quite frankly, pulling out of the Eurozone makes no sense. Italy does much better under a common currency as it makes trade easier and helps their economy because certain members of the currency union do more to bring it up than others. If a country that actually had a lot of economic clout (say, Germany) were to want to revive their currency, then maybe you should take notice. Unless Italy wants to "race to the bottom", which seems unlikely... So yeah, much ado about nothing.

7 Jay. Second reply to your question. Just noticed this article in WorldNetDaily that's on point. One-world religion on its way? http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44772 It's difficult to read between the lines, but the "One-world religion" and "New World Order" he mentions are masterminded by fabulously wealthy people including those behind the UN and the Liberal Party of Canada. These people have already achieved in Canada the one thing they've been trying to accomplish in the US, that is to disarm the population. They've disarmed everyone in Canada unless you "get their written permission" to buy a firearm. Americans will always fight this. It will be impossible to take the right to bear arms away from the Americans. It's in their genes. They will take to the streets with guns in hand and defy anyone trying. Can you imagine that ever happening in Canada. I can't. And so they start in Canada, right next door to the US. What else are they starting here? Canada is such an easy target.

8 WorldNut Daily? Weren't those the guys absolutely convinced that Y2K was going to be the end of the world?

9 "Member of opposition party in Italy says something stupid and the world is supposed to see it as proof of the collapse of the EU and the ECC?" No, the proof of the impending collapse of the EU was the French and Dutch noes to the constitution: it'll only get bumpier and more interesting from here. And what's the ECC? Years studying European politics and my time in Brussels notwithstanding, I don't recognize that acronynm. "If a country that actually had a lot of economic clout (say, Germany) were to want to revive their currency, then maybe you should take notice." Lurker, every poll out there shows a majority of Germans would love their marks back, and Angela Merkel (the leader of the CDU who will be the next chancellor when Schoeder goes in flames) could make herself a national hero if she even started talking about it. The Euro is already a disaster and awaits becoming a catastrophe because it was always a political rather an economic project. It takes any problems any country has and exacerbates them, because the ECB has to pursue a monetary policy that's "one-size-fits-none": too tight for recessionary economies like Germany's but too loose for inflationary ones like Ireland's. Instead of making condescending remarks about Italy, you might want to consider that when ANYONE would hearken back to the glory days of the lira, you know something's severely wrong.

10 "The Euro is already a disaster " Hardly true. In terms of value, it is a monster - having outstripped the US dollar and, in many parts of the world being looked at as replacing the US dollar as the worlds pre-eminent currency. From a strictly selfish point of view, I love travelling through Europe without having to exchange currencies.

11 I meant it's a disaster for the people who have to actually live with it, and as for its "monstrous" buying power, it's egregiously overvalued. Sell it short: you don't have to buy dollars; you don't have to buy dollars, you can buy yen or sterling or Swiss francs or krone (Danish or Swedish) or whatever, because within the medium term it is simply doomed. I was predicting it would last no more than fifteen years as far back as 1996, and I still stand by that...and possibly far shorter.

12 Woops. Meant to type EEC, not ECC. my bad and apologies. As for the constitutional crisis, i'm sure you would be familar with the other supposed "death blows" dealt to the EU during the period of "Eurosciolis" in the 1980s and the squabling that it begat (the BBQ, the aborted attempts at CAP reform, etc). I recall that back then, many commentators also also were claiming the end of the EEC in cover stories and opnion columns as well. As we now know, inspite of all the infighting, those ended in Maastritch in 1992. Again, wait and see. As for the Euro being overvalued, yep, you're exactly right. It is far too overvalued, but in large part that is the result of the US committment to fiscal irresponsibilty at home and their desperate attempts to keep their dollar deliberately devalued in order to remain competitive. Once the US economy recovers, the Euro will likely devalue against the American dollar and slowly climb up once again. But why bother getting rid of it? You seem to maintain that the Euro was a politically motivated project, lorded over by Neofunctionalists and Eurocrats, when most evidence seems to show that it is economically motivated and remains economically motivated (free movement of goods and currencies). I'm sure the "success" of the ECSC, the only nakedly politcally motivated manouver of functionalists and eurofederalists will stand as testiment to this statement. Also, i must disgree with your claims that the ECB has a "one side fits none" approach. In fact, many experts have noted that the "grants, not loans" approach that the ECB takes to infrastructre development is much better than the IMF/ World Bank model that REALLY is a "one side fits none". I'm sure people in Ireland and, say, the Czech Repbulic would disagree with your claims. In light of your claims of expertise on the EU, I'm sure you will be in aggreement with me that the biggest crisis the EU faces is not the constutional rounds and opposition parties going on about the glory days of the Lira, but agricultural reform issues facing the EU in the next round of enlargment. Yes, no?

13 I would agree that CAP reform issues loom large, but would take issue with the idea that that can be separated from what's going on with the constitution. They're all interconnected. Chirac tried to deflect blame onto the UK rebate, then Blair (in a wise show of rare bacbone for him on the EU) upped the stakes by saying the British rebate becomes negotiable when France's utterly disproportionate share of EU farm subsidies becomes negotiable. As for whether economics or politics was the main driving force behind the Euro, it was Jacques Delors' baby, and he was the quintessential "France-writ-large" Brussels Eurocrat if there ever was one, committed to the ideological "project" of "ever closer union" and whatever would bring that closer to reality. I'm sure there are plenty fo economists who really think it is all about economics, but I simply don't buy it. The EU is, as it has been from the days of Schuman and Monnet, something of a cultish secular religion: anything that doesn't fit its agenda must by definition be error, and any disagreement verges on heresy. The French and Dutch referenda show the public finally isn't going to go passively along with that anymore. And as for Ireland and the Czech Republic among others, polls in both countries show opposition skyrocketing...if they ever get to vote, of course.

14 Don't forget the muted anger when France announced they were not to hold to agreed-upon inflation indexes and - my memory is wobbly - but didn't Germany also violate one of the guidelines?

15 I believe Germany went past the national debt rules. The EU said "oh well". And if I recall correctly Greece plain lied about it's deficits in order to get into the EU - once they were in and the truth was found out the EU said "oh well". The EU seems to have a lot in common with the UN.

16 "The EU seems to have a lot in common with the UN." The EU esentially IS the UN with a narrower geographic reach but more power.

17 Blogsites are great. This is so much better than trying to catch all the details of a similar conversation in an elivator. Comments from those more in the know. Excellent! 73s TG