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The Death Knell Of The European Union (In 1 Chart)
How many times in the last few years have you (or any of Europe's less-than-core leaders) said to yourselves- "EU, what's the point?" All this ceding of sovereignty, centralization of power, relinquishment of decision-making; and for what? The answer - of course - free-er trade, a customs union enabling cross-border trade to flourish and in the great economics textbooks of the world for each member state to do what they do best (German VWs and Greek yogurt?) and maximally profit from that. That all sounds wunderbar in practice... except this rather uncomfortable truth-seeking chart shows that the last decade has seen an accelerating decline in intra-European-Union trade, especially in the last 4 years - to levels that are now below those pre-EU. So, once again, "what's the point?"
Note: The above figure shows intra-EU and intra-Eurozone shares of export on total export of the two groups respectively. Each of the two lines were constructed taking into account the changing composition of the European Union and the Euro Area over time, meaning that a given country is included in the series only by the time it joined the EU or the Euro. However, further calculations shows results do not change dramatically if considering a fixed group of countries in either series.
The share of the intra-EU export of the EU total export experienced a steady rise since the early 80’. In fact, the rise was up to 8 percentage points in that period. However, after stagnating from the mid-90’s until the end of the 2000’s, intra-EU saw a sharp downward trajectory in the last four years, implying global trading partners have become and are becoming more important. Interestingly, the data also show that the Euro Area has been following nearly the exact same pattern as the European Union as a whole, suggesting the common currency might not have had the expected effect on trade between Euro Area members.
* * *
If Barroso and his muppets can't even get the customs union right, what hope is there for them to reform their way out of this ever-shrinking paper bag of EU fragility. Perhaps, EUR is declining, not on QE-debasement-jawboning hope; but on a realization that it's all over again.
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Well obviously the point was to make money by ripping people off with taxes and inflation. That appears to be doing great!
This goes a long way of describing how the vermin rape, pillage and loot all at the expense of the tax slave. Her 90's testimony was spot on and prophetic at times.
https://solari.com/blog/anne-williamson-testimony/
bb
Great read and history lesson(s) that keeps revealing "themselves" in too many unflattering ways to count anymore if you are American!
Thx
What's the point of the EU? Avoiding another dose of Operation Gladio from the NATO / ZATO terrorists is the way they motivated the herd to go for the EU.
As a gentle reminder, the European Union started out as a project to ensure prosperity and peace in Europe after the ravages of the second World War, brought on by right-wing and nationalist politics.
It succeeded in both these objectives -- until the onset of the Great Financial Crisis, which was caused by American banks(ters). Food for thought.
This article promulgates a simplistic version of free-trade comparative advantage (do what you're good at). In fact, all wealthy countries have pulled themselves up behind protective barriers, have lowered the costs of doing business by investing in public assets and infrastructures, and have a solid agricultrual basis. A lot of academic work shows that comparative advantage free-trade is NOT the best possible outcome -- it's more complicated.
This chart does not show what percentage of GDP is export. If export has been growing as a percentage of GDP than this may contradict your conclusion.
As a gentle reminder, what you say is total bollocks. Peace in Europe since the 11WW has been underwritten by the collective defence treaty known as NATO- founded in 1949 before the EU existed- and nowt else.
It is part of the propaganda of the EU to try and hijack the success of NATO in securing peace from aggression for the last 67 years and infer/claim/otherwise confuse the issue by saying that peace for all those years was due to the EU. It wasn't. What scared off the USSR and the Warsaw pact was the rock solid alliance of the NATO nations. If it had been left to the limpwrists of Brussels to deter the USSR we would all be speaking Russian by now.
( Spoken as one who is not at all happy with the perambulations of the NATO alliance over the last 20 years or so but can see the vast service it has done for the countries of Europe before that)
Peace was simply the sales pitch to allow control to be handed over to the unelected puppets of the Nazionists, who now show the true intent of the EU...ease of control - irrespective of what elected officials or the people want. But it's too late now...roll on the NWO.
OBEY!
No thanks, resistance is far more enjoyable.
TOLD YOU SO! We've been trying to kill the Euro Dollar for 8 years or more. Now the USA dollar will have a Renaissance of sorts before it's all said and done. Go team USA...
Fuck right off on outa here with your bullshit.
Ha Ha! The US is having a hard enough time holding on as one country... what makes the Euros think they have a chance???? And honestly, why do they want the chance?
MOAR ZIRP!!!
Moar cheap Hydro-carbons, cheap Resources and cheap foreign Labor for an aging population. Please.
How else are you gonna have cheap Fiat notes that the serfs of the planet are gonna take, or be forced to, if we are to maintain our high consumption lifestyles? /s.
"And honestly, why do they want the chance?"
Because the alternative is to have a world led by Chinese and Russian interests, neither of which have any regard for human rights, free speech, liberty or the environment Be careful what you wish for?
You can smell the smoke from the lasers engraving the plates for the new commodities backed currencies.
Commodity backed currencies are a bad idea. Why have countries hoard the very stuff they need to live and grow?
Fiat currencies are here to stay like it or not. It gives the state the power to control the money supply and grow it as needed.
In the past there has never been effective control over that process and so countries with fiat money have hyperinflated as they pushed the money supply beyond reasonable sums. The Euro however has developed a unique system using gold on it's balance sheet marked to market. In this way the gold is not 'backing the currency' as in the gold standard but it is available for use in currency defence in the Forex market. When the dollar finally gives up the ghost the Euro will still have gold. Then it will be the only asset on the balance sheet and with 'physical only' trading, will become a workable reserve asset as it will be priced correctly uninhibited by a paper market. Currently this 'paper gold' satisfies most of the gold demand and keeps the price low.
In this however, while fine as another financial asset, the needs of real producers, like say the Saudis and Chinese, for riskless assets, cannot be met. Sovereigns will demand metal, not the mere promise of metal from parties who cannot deliver in crises.
I believe that the failure of the dollar will see all major countries restate their currencies in the style of the euro. Thus with gold as the reserve, all currencies will be valued against each other by their relationship to gold.
All we are waiting for is the exit of the current reserve. The euro is already there. The ECB seems to be waiting. They are not killing that currency as the FED struggles to save the dollar but instead prints it to oblivion.
Interesting.
Fofoa.
who else?
Government economic planning fails again.
Nope. A smashing success as usual: "Well obviously the point was to [steal] money by ripping people off with taxes and inflation." /wink
One point was to try to stop the economic and cultural disputes between European countries that led to war.
How ironic that while the EU members are not now starting wars against each other, their liberal immigration and free-travel policies have created rapidly-growing populations within the EU borders of radical Islamic and other groups that may, if not stopped, cause some of these countries to experience wars within their own borders.
The demographics (the greater birthrates) of the radical Islamic and other immigrants bode ill for the EI countries in the same way that the greater birthrate of the Arab Israelis suggests Israeli Jews could become a minority in Israel.
I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition...
Pretty pathetic to see the Red Shield's boy Cameron demonizing Putin when the UK's Pakistani 'asylum seekers" have been rapining English children by the tens of hundreds and the UK cops do nothing because of political correctness and ccries of racism.
Does anyone think Russia or Putin would allow invaders to do that? Obama-USA is no better either.
They call it grooming. They look for the emotionally abandoned.
the article is based on the (usually British) assumption that the EU is for "free trade" (the mantra that was used to get Britons on board in the '70s)
the trade scope of the EU wasn't only intra-EU trade - it was in order to make out of many regulatory environments one regulatory environment - and the one the EU now has is a compromise out of the original 28
one of the many reasons why intra-EU trade is lower is because production is being shifted more near the consumers - which again can only be done by SME inside the same trade and regulatory zone, otherwise you often need to be bigger, and so part of Big Biz
the EU is about Four Freedoms: of movement of capital, wares, services and people (only citizens, though). While this kind of pseudo-attack is about Big Biz preferring an environment that favours them, or someone riding the wave of discontent and targeting this supra-national org with what I again can only call a pseudo-attack. seriously, is this all you can find against the EU?
read again the charts, btw. what do they say? that half of the trade of both the eurozone and EU is among themselves. it follows that the other half is with the rest of the world. what's wrong about that? did we commit to do only trade among ourselves? European countries are still the trading nations of the world, as ZH showed a few times. I'd be very, very worried if those charts would rise too much toward the top
about your demographics point: note that Sweden, for example, is accepting great numbers of refugees fleeing from radical Islamic groups: from Syria. a Swedish national and humanitarian decision, which of course will be used later as whatever fancies propagandists, including the anti-immigration Swedish Democrats party
You make good points. I especially like the point about half the trade being with the Eurozone and the other half with the rest of the world. Squiggly lines mean nothing in themselves, it's the interpretation that counts.
I don't know why you are so heavily down voted. Nobody contradicts you or replies to your post after down voting you. These are ideological down votes. If someone sees the points you are making going against their prejudices, it's an automatic down vote. The intellectual caliber ZH seems to be sinking.
He talks about FREEDOMS, which utter bollocks.
The only freedoms that I, as a European, can see is the freedom to be utterly fucked by the Useen Barosso Type Buraucrats without the benefits that used to be provided, like better Health Service and Education On the other hand,Increase in TAXES, Theft by the PRIVATE BANKS (through the respective Governments, See Cyprus, Greece and soon to the rest of the Euroland). To top it all, we have these same politicians ENCOURAGING FASCISM, in Ukraine and the rest of the EU, Like Greece where the people protesting are Gassed by the increasing Militarised Police. There are NO Democracies in any of the European Countries because the only excuse is: WE DO THIS TO BENEFIT EUROPE. Which of course Europe is THEMSELVES, .... the fuckers.
The so called inter-European Trade is totaly unfair when the Multinational Company EVADES TAXATION but the Mom and Pop shop pay over the odds. Those are Euro Projects for the Monopolists, Oligopolists and Cartels.
When I had in excess of 100K savings the INTEREST that I got was less than 0.5%. On the other hand the Interest one pays to the Credit Cards are in excess of 24% COMPOUND INTEREST, so where is the restriction on these abuses?. What we have here is the Greatest THEFT of the People's MONEY, that was accumulated over a LIFE TIME. and Ghordius talks about Freedoms my arse. The moment that I have the FREEDOM TO HANG THEM then I will rethink the whole European Project.
Fully agree. I disagree on a few of Ghordius' points he has made in the past, but he has always delivered them in high quality. He reasons and argues well. This is what I'd like to see more of. Some inane quips I can find on youtube. This site should hold itself to a higher standard. If we'd all agree on every shit, we wouldn't need a forum. We could listen to ourselves all day long. Discussion is about learning and understanding different point of views and being prepared to adapt and evolve.
In regards to intra European trade, I see this as the general development of globalisation. Outsourcing used to be to a neighbour with a cheaper workforce, now we outsource to overseas production facilities. Production chains tend to travel much further than 20 years ago as transportation and organsiation thereof has become increasingly cheaper and more efficient. Small example would be Germany's car industry. Parts suppliers used to be local - or at furthest European. Now guys like the Canadian Magna International dominate the automobile parts market and supply Germany as well. Nothing wrong with that and is says very little about the success of the EU.
edit: @ escapedgoat: freedoms are experienced in different degrees I suppose, or are not always readily visible. I for instance have greatly benefitted from EU's freedom. I've moved 6x in 10 years with family inside the EU - including the UK. It has always been reasonably uncomplicated. Some things can be a pain, such as having to do a German, French and UK tax return all at once, or getting the car registered in a new country. This is where the standardisation of rules and regulations can be of a real advantage. A more mobile Europe means stronger cross fertilisation of values and beliefs. I quite like that aspect. Doesn't mean every nation has to lose its uniqueness, instead it can strengthen and reinforce common values. That is why I am strictly against EU expansion to include countries like Turkey. There is too little common cultural ground to be found IMO.
"note that Sweden, for example, is accepting great numbers of refugees fleeing from radical Islamic groups: from Syria. a Swedish national and humanitarian decision, which of course will be used later as whatever fancies propagandists, including the anti-immigration Swedish Democrats party"
Who created the radical Islamic groups? Why is it Sweden's responsibility to import them? Who is actually promoting this policy and making the decisions? A national decision? Thru what 'national' vehicle? Is this the best means to help these people?
You use "propagandists" as a pejorative. Nice tactic. So people in Sweden who oppose this policy are to have no voice in the process at all, even when the policy inevitably evolves into something that will be completely unpalatable to most Swedes?
yes, I do use "propagandists" as a pejorative. because they usually fail to mention the whole truth
no, imo Sweden can't be blamed about the creation of radical Islamic groups. What Sweden is doing, is having a center-right political coalition in power that says Sweden ought to accept great numbers of refugees from Syria. and this is a fact
yes, it is a national decision. a Swedish national policy decision done by a majority in the Swedish Parliament, with a minority opposed to that. a fact, too
if this is the best means to help these people is a completely different question. I'm completely out of that discussion, here
further, the same majority supports Sweden's membership in the EU, which has very little to do with the rest
and the propaganda against this immigration does and will again "shake and mix" the whole matter and try to make it look as it's about EU=immigration. and this is where I dislike propaganda, where complex matters are mixed together to make everything look simple
I would not mind a serious discussion about immigration. I do mind the propagandistic and populist ones, full of false facts
"yes, it is a national decision. a Swedish national policy decision done by a majority in the Swedish Parliament, with a minority opposed to that. a fact, too"
So Swedish Parliament is a fair representation of the people's will? In no way are they unduly influenced by corporations or the empire in making these decisions? And a decision of this importance requires a mere transitory majority?
"try to make it look as it's about EU=immigration."
First a basic tenet of the EU is open borders, so immigration. Second, is it possible that the EU needs to destroy the nation states of Europe in order to 'blossom'? And isn't excessive immigration of populations whose demographics are different a very powerful tool for destroying national identities?
What then of the power of Swedish Parliament and it's ability to reflect the wishes of Swedes?
Do you have any idea what will have to be done to reverse this process when it comes time to do so?
What's the point? I'm sure a debt peddling banker has a power point presentation or two that will answer your question.
Wouldn't that make it a power pointless presentation?
Depends on who attends...
It's always fun to watch confused peoples' heads explode who think things are done to give the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.
Yes, Doc. I call it "Debt by PowerPoint".
Not to be confused with "Death by PowerPoint". ;-)
Well it achieved it's primary purpose, Europe was held back from challenging US dominance for a decade or so. But like so many other nefarious plans, it's coming unraveled now.
The 'European Union' is FAR from Dead. That ponzi € is another story.
Well with all this technology and money around the NWO needs some sacrifice and subversion from morality to create a world civilization necessary for continued human survival. They need nation states, a central banking system and a single military to harvest the world's resources; to lift the less fortunate into a higher state of consciousness. It takes a world village. If Hillary gets elected she's going to have her village or else you're all going to die M'Fers.
Re. Central Bank System.
From the Guardian Independent Scotland could not join EU without central bank, expert says
You can't join the club if you don't feed the banksters.
How does Iceland survive without a central bank??
Iceland has a central bank, here is it's website: http://www.cb.is/
nevertheless, the "expert" cited is a former EU commissioner that is just joining the propaganda chorus of "let's scare the Scots" regarding the EU
the hilarious fact is that Scots in general want to stay in the EU more than stay in the UK. scaring them about a need for an own currency is just part of this frankly quite embarassing "Stay together" campaign. The Royal Bank of Scotland is, for all purposes, a ready-to-use National Bank of Scotland. It even prints the Scottish Pound notes, which could be pegged also "electronically" to the British Pound
The NWO is pushing it's chips to the center of the table. And now to flip the cards over it's -- Hillary Clinton.
Grab your balls.
If europe breaks up, I hope the libs in this country still want us to emulate the europeans.
One fine day, the denizens of this earth will awake to realize that they, and they alone are sovereign. By this time, the sovereigns may be trading sticks for stones, but they will have no need of central control.
Then, a few of the sovereigns will decide that they can cooperate, and even dominate in market x or market y. And the whole fucking process will start over, again. Don't fret chillun's, this all just a little bit of history repeatin'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QngStkp-E
Well they wanted to create a socialist super state and it's working out the way that anyone who is not a socialist would expect it to.
The point is of course to supply the UK no matter what the cost to local and national exchange elsewhere - the very center of the Euro usury experiment.
UK trade of real goods & population data is screaming this.
Add France and holland (if you can manage to subtract Rotterdam entrepot operations) and you can begin to understand the European power dynamic.
The population is moving to national and financial capitals because that is where the money tokens are - and for no other reason.
Usuary strips its productive base so as to get a yield.
Its turns its hinterland into a ranch style operation.
This has been happening in Britian since the Cecils and the Cromwells.
I think this is all about an independent Germany and indeed economically speaking no nation has benefited better from the total chaos of the euro. Putin's move into Crimea will go down in History as full on dumbkopf if Germany "liberates" itself from the EU.
Clearly I don't see a return to the aggressive foreign policies of the 20th Century (for the record even after defeat in World War II Germany still had point in the Cold War.) But a Germany united with a Capital in Berlin "constrained by the fact that it is part of an aggressive alliance system" strikes me as a power (certainly in an economic sense) to be reckoned with.
Germany is a colony.
It exports its wealth for Gods sake - the very defination of such.
If you define a nation as a collection of corporates then I guess Germany has done well.
If you define Germany as a collection of people with at least some conmmon goals then I am afraid not.
Germany is a capitalistic nightmare.
That's a 400 billion euro trade surplus! "They export to the world"!!!!
Only China and the USA can lay claim to that. Interestingly...both Germany and China are resource poor....constrained not just by basic "needs" but also geographies that one would think would make them insecure.
This has not been true economically though.
Where the English are in all this I still find a little bewildering. Be under no illusions when it comes to the USA. To the extent our presence is "allowable" the US is pressing quite aggressively in a forward direction in my view.
European people need to understand that only redistribution of income on capital will save it from the centralist Mordor that it has become.
A basic lesson from Jesus will suffice.
The water into wine.
The loaves and the fishes.
There is no scarcity of goods.
Almost all liquid energy in Europe is wasted on pointless & manic trade with these epic battles for scarce money.
German mercantilists. The USA is running truly epochal trade and budget deficits "like it was nothing." It all comes down to "free trade." The absolute power of Wall Street comes down to its willingness to extend credit at beyond belief favorable terms to enterprises (Amazon, Tesla, the Airline Industry) that at first blush have no economic viability...let alone value...whatsoever.
This just doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. Overlay that Federal largesse and the biggest war effort since World War II...again "bears beware." Overshoots in prima facie "rationality in the market place" can become "moonshots" too to the point where even massive corrections (40% or more) "do only technical damage."
Dork end fractional reserve banking and reintroduce sound money and the productive will be unleashed to do what we do.
The goal of the EU was to usurp wealth and power from the citizens of multiple countries all at once.
To that end, it remains the most successful bankster scheme to date.
And hey, an added benefit comes in the form of at least one Greek citizen killing themselves every single day due to poverty, and countless others across the EU doing the same or starving to death.
A self-culling herd, oh how the sociopaths must be jumping for joy! /sarc
+1
The Euro has been a very convenient place for the global oligarchy to keep their profits while the dollar was being flushed down the toilet.....meanwhile the US sheeple have had only their depreciating dollars to bank.
It says something about the quality of posts on ZH that the obvious, TVP's post, took 2 dozen takes.
The objective of the EU is what happened in the EU. Power and decision making went away from national capitals and politicians, to international bureaucracies and those who run them. Where power runs, money follows.
As has become, post hoc, so obvious, everything else said in favor of the EU; freerer trade, the movement of peoples, the end of wars, was bs.
Nuland (Nudelman) was right about only one thing: "F*%k the EU".
The geopolitical term I should have used is "gambit" not "feint."
The point of causing Putin to go into Crimea is to make him think you care. Interestingly the media said nothing! "Now we have over two thousand dead and something unthinkable during the Cold War"...namely an outright invasion from West....to East.
These events to me look to be moving very quickly from "merely provocative" to indeed "outright provocations."
"All in the name of defense."
The EU is great----
Before the EU,
it was like herding cats
for USAIPAC/Rothschilds....
Now it is easy---
they only have to control Brussels.
Homogenized, pasteurized,
shrink-wrapped--
fit only for land fill
I eat French cheeses from very small owners/farmers/producers made with un-pasteurized milk. Yup, the EU is possibly the only place on earth were un-pasteurized milk products are allowed, to the great chagrin of some Big Biz Diaries top executives
I would like to live in Europe. There is mom and pop restaurant, serving delicious food, pub or cafe, on every corner, women are on the average way better looking and, unless you walk into certain areas of big cities, you feel safe everywhere.
Too bad I can experience it only as the tourist.
And too bad that international bureaucrats are pillaging it.
Agree up to "you fill safe everywhere". Factor in jihad and you might change your opinion. The good times are quickly ending.
Create the European Union was creating a cancer cell that only tends to spread and explain:
Europe as a whole is like Japan, we have in excess, is not self-sufficient in food into energy much less, earn cash producing assets.
While independent states, each with its own currency and testes each knew where to invest, what to buy to produce and sell to others, and especially to export to the rest of the world.
I laugh when I remember that it all began with coal and steel, and to this day they think that only with this by creating the European Union would form an independent continent.
Unfortunately forgotten that do not have oil or gas much less land to feed so many people, and I repeat, are such as Japan, South Korea and many others in East Asia.
Nothing more than a bunch of petulant technology that will return to the stone age without food and energy for their industries.
Until the 1980s saw many poor Portuguese arriving in Brazil, came from the Azores, Lisbon, all over the place in Portugal, were in poverty do doh, were always treated well after all, are our brothers.
Today I witness Portuguese arrived in Brazil, with Euros in their pockets achincalhando my land.
For my part I know all the splendor of Portugal and Spain came here from South America, all gold elites left here and that they do not spend a lot of d'infertile land today to supply its own population with the exception of some vineyards and olive groves.
Perhaps another Caliphate give encouragement to lusitanos to guerrir but without the back to Brazil, die slaves as they are at this time in relation to the United States, such as Poland is doing a blowjob.
I know these are harsh words but I heard and read a lot worse for Europeans and North Americans on blogs across the world, already took a lot of punches when it comes to being an underdeveloped Brazilian asshole who has no weapons at home, more worse than can you imagine a guy in the "third world" trying to communicate on the Web.
What I am talking about here are only empirical findings, nothing scientifically proven or transformed into graphs as the Anglo-Saxons like to transform human and healthy things - where all the data is transported.
I believe that history repeats itself.
Just as France ideologically and financially supported the war against England in the past, the case of Mistrals is consistent.
Just as Rome fell by splitting and now the UK is to dismember - do not forget Ireland - USA desmembrarão also - I believe that Texas will be the first followed by most states of the South full of vietamitas, Latinos, Africans, Muslims of all types and brands brought every invasion abroad.
Every invasion abroad that Europe did, a lot of refugees came, every invasion that USA did went to other hills.
Brazil has only a UN mission in Haiti, and we are an invasion of Haitians here.
In 1967 Brazil was another UN peace mission, and a lot of Muslims came.
There is a contingent of Brazilians in Africa, what is African coming here is not little.
In the decade of 1920/1930 Brazil received lot of Japanese Kaigai Kogyo Kabushiki by Kaisha before it came Italians, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, Austrians.
Before these, black slaves brought by the Portuguese.
Interestingly, here, all mingled, is a genetic soup where everyone speaks the same language, have almost the same territorial thinking, we are all Brazilians.
To give you idea, nor the Italian Mafia has managed to establish in Brazil, such Tommaso Buschetta screwed up here and splintered much Mafia in Italy.
May believe that it was not because the USA was because of that here, the boss are Brazilian.
Yes, we have problems with Freemasonry entrenched in the judiciary and in economics but I can tell you that here, Mason is nationalist and, most already know that does not respond to Israel and even our national interests by the way, there are many lodges in the interior of Brazil who turned a laughingstock and are abandoned with all those lions and triangles thrown to time.
Ando motorcycle by Brazil, 5% do not know or in my fifty-two years of age.
My brother in law sells Styrofoam for alcohol plants, construction of buildings told that only knows 30% of the capital in 28 years of work.
The interesting thing about being Brazilian is that you can fly 4000 km from one corner to another, from north to south, from east to west, and speak the same language, have the same beer, food can be a little different but there will always be beans , rice, meat, egg, salad of some sort, and lots of rum, all done in the region, nothing imported from Europe or the USA.
That is why I believe the best patrol planes or war in Brazil would be the Russians and Chinese, they have continental automomia.
Russia and China will be like one day, countries with egalitarian assimilation.
Are brothers, continental countries.
Talk about India and South Africa is complicated for a Brazilian, it is as if some parts of Brazil to overlap without the common language we have here.
Compare countries with the strength of Brazil, China and Russia with Europe is cowardice.
For my part, they will eat the brass nails that produce along with their radiation as well as the Japanese.
Better stay here.
Sorry for the long text.
complwetly agree.
Austrian VOEST now builds a factory in US for raw iron and steel products. According to their statement, tehy want to import the products back to Europe??????
They want to use US cheap fracking gas, say teh article. Funny morons in US destroy their environment and VOEST helps them.
Anyhow, Donbas is the same story, but Donbas is already allocated to Germany. What Hitler did not achieve by external invasion, will be achieved by internal fight. the old Ua industry heavy industry is now and today already destroyed, as teh markest for them (Russia defence industry) are closed now. The west will beat them on every market, using the subsidies. After the destruction of this industry, Germany will step in and run away from german backyard, overburdended by regulation, high labour cost and unflexible EU rules....
http://derstandard.at/1362108276939/Voest-mit-groesstem-Auslands-Investm...
To state the obvious, it was never about cooperation, it has always about CONTROL and giving technocrats/bankers control over the futures and fortune of previously independent countries.
... and so called country leaders sold-out their countries for privilege in the new order. There are always traitors.
Free and independent counties and their people would most likely never submit to globalist elitists without coercive power and the threat of pain.
TPTB put leaders in charge who would lead their populations into EU bondage. Borders are eliminated and unbridled immigration follows, contributing to loss of identity which is exactly what the EU wants. Then economics is controlled to punish noncompliant nations like Russia, even though such polices destroy the lives of EU citizenry.
Not really sure why any of the members agreed to join the EU. Did they not understand that using euros as their currency means giving up control of the currency? Sure countries like Greece would hyperinflate themselves into obvlivion, but at least they would know it's their own fault. Right now, everyone is blaming someone else. France is pointing at Spain, Spain points at Greece, etc. Nothing will ever get resolved because nobody thinks they're the idiot at the table.
It wasn't really tihe populations of each country that crated the EU mess. Many of them recognized the threat to sovereignty and resisted joining. It was their elected officials who were more concerned with their own power. After that laws and policies were implemented that diminished the individuality of the member nations.
+1000
And it shows Loss of Sovereingty in Greece above all else, Italy second with the joke of Political semantics (Beppe Grillo is disregarded at every turn with 25.5% of the vote) and NOW France with the suspension of the Mistral Project.
I Was of the opinion that the French lost it when Mitterand was in power. He had given the codes to the British (in the war of the falklands) of the exoset missiles to make them ineffective, NOW with the Mistral project in tatters , WHO are they going to sell their military hardware to????
My point is they have managed to destroy every county's ability to decide for themselves, on their own future.
I agree--the whole point of the EU is control of the entire continent regardless of what the populations want. However he French lost it during the Revolution. The same hidden hands were at work there and have only become more imperceptable and destructive over time.
the EU is one club. 28 members. the eurozone with it's EUR is a different club. 18 members. the UK is member of the first club but not of the second
i'm not a EU fan by any means but with the imploding economies wouldn't one expect trade to fall off?
what am i misssing?
Indeed. This article requires a comparison between EU external and internal trade behaviour to make a point... Maybe it's the whole world trade that has collapsed and not only between EU countries.
The "free market" and the current banking system are based on a growth.
Despite the trade up and down and back and forth, I do not see the growth.
Maybe you miss it there as well.
True, there has been a reduction in global trade volumes but this chart measures % proportions, not volumes.
If I understand the chart correctly, the blue axis shows that (today) about 64% of EU exports are to other EU member states, the rest goes to non-EU members like BRIICS etc. Previously intra-EU trade accounted for closer to 68/69% in 2006. This means that intra-EU exports have declined as member states increase export proportions to non-EU countries.
Similar thing with the red axis.
The blue and red axis therefore correctly reflect a decline in intra-EU/EZ exports as a proportion of their total exports, as the article claims. After all, why would Germany want to waste time and money trying to export its cars to over-mature, bankrupt, economically depressed EU member states when there are hundreds of millions of potential customers across the BRIICS?
It's just another example of how the EU is an idea from an earlier age and is obsoleted by modern day economic activity.
smacker, well spotted. though you forgot the regulatory environment angle. My partners and me, for example, operate in several EU countries. Our products need to be certified only in one regulatory environment, the EU. Which makes our SME operations possible... without us having to be bought up by a Big Biz company that is able to operate across several regulatory environments
of course, you could go all huffy and puffy "free trade" Briton on my and ask: why a regulatory environment at all? to which I'd have to answer: are you able to imagine continental europeans without a regulatory environment? have a look at the beer market in Florida, and ask there why certain sizes of cans are forbidden
and what is valid for one regulatory environment, is also true for one currency. the seen and the unseen. can you really see how europe would currently look like without the EU or the EUR?
having said that: please take the UK out of the EU
Actually, I didn't forget "the regulatory environment angle". It simply wasn't relevant to the article and chart. But thanks for bringing it up because it adds to the problem highlighted by this ZH chart of reducing intra-EU trade relative to exports to non-EU countries.
Having standard regs across the EU is a good thing for SMEs in particular and should increase the proportions of exports between EU member states for obvious reasons. But despite that, proportions are actually decreasing, as the chart shows.
As I alluded to previously, the EU is a construct designed in an earlier age that does not reflect modern day business and trade patterns. It is also a hotbed of unelected apparatchiks with political agendas. Many of them were political failures in their home countries, like Barroso.
do you have an alternative that does not go in the direction of fully unregulated free trade? should we go back to 28 different regulatory environments?
I can't mask my... impatience with the "unelected apparatschiks" part
take Hollande. elected prez of France. is there any way for the French to get rid of him? no. his approval ratings are now around 17-19%
take Cameron or Merkel. How many people elected directly Cameron? His district has less than 100'000 inhabitants. How are they appointed to their posts? By parliamentary majority, based on a coalition of parties. Can they be dropped and exchanged with others? Any Day In Parliament
take Juncker, the new EU Commission chief. All european conservative parties (except the self-banned British Torys) nominated him in Dublin. His commission is based on the coalition of two main political party families from all over Europe, and will need the confirmation of both the Council and the elected EU Parliament, and can be dropped by both on a whim
for someone that dislikes the fact that the UK has no written constitution, I glimpse little patience or interest for constitutional matters in you. do you seriously prefer the "elected before anything else" mantra from our US Cousins? Aren't you often in Brazil? How are they faring with their elected president?
Barroso was a misfit, agreed. I could go back and remind you that it was the UK gov that blocked a different candidate, and Barroso was selected because he is an ardent... Anglophile, strongly supported by the UK gov of that time, together with Baroness Ashton as foreign affairs commissioner. those are facts, I'm afraid
As I said, having some standard regs across Europe is desirable for business and consumers. I have no problem with that, except that we have too much regulation, much of which is politically inspired by those who want to dictate to the rest of us to create their socialist utopia.
However, it wasn't necessary to create a giant unelected monster "EU" to achieve that. European govts are able to do that and it would give many of them something useful to do. We have surely reached "peak beaurocrat" level across Europe.
And as we have seen for years, these know-nothing socialists and assorted misfits that bloat the corridors of EU power go way beyond any brief given to them by European people. The latest attack on the wattage of vacuum cleaners, the wattage of hair driers soon to follow are examples. A few years ago, their mandated phasing out of incandescent light bulbs in favour of useless low-wattage bulbs was another.
The list of Brussels meddling in member state affairs is very long. And now we see Barroso and his EU cronies playing a direct role in the revolution/coup that was manufactured in the Ukraine and are now supporting the Poroshenko fascist goverment to suppress self-determination of the local population.
I wasn't aware Brussels had any brief to get involved in European foreign policy. It could easily lead to war. Who will take responsibility for that? Barroso? Junket? I doubt it. They'll run for the bunker.
Regarding your other comments: I am of course aware that many of the EU-crats are elected by member state leaders - but when every candidate is as useless as all the others - it's not surprising that we end up with buffoons grabbing large amounts of power and running Europe. This process is far too remote from the very people who they spend their time dictating to.
It's time for the EU to be shut down and the parasites sent back to their home countries.
BRICS do not embrace a financial global economy. It is to their advantage to see that EU is intact as their putocrats will put politics above economics and continue with QEs and their variants to be further debt laden and hopefully drive up more consumption.
BRICS with China in particular shall have the window to dump more of their overproduction upon EC.
With the decline of EU economies, BRICS can climb the technology ladders by paying basement prices for the EU mid level tech gears and with Euro that they do not want.
EU shall be a Political Blog with diminished economies. Unemployment with Debt implosion leading to recession is still in the horizon. Until the EC economies get shattered it shall take decades to rebuild with BRICS only then interested in whatever resources and low wages left in EC.
EC's putocrats are still peddling their superior economic systems that are increasingly laughed at by creditor nations.
World trade (and especially in the western world) will eventually get much smaller (a de-globaliziation trend) because of rising energy prices (depleted cheap oil/gas) and collapsing currencies/economies. The world for most people will have to get again much more local again, to be sustainable. In that sense Europe shows the way... The Euro's demise is carved in stone IMO because of the internal economic imbalances. I think even the hardcore EU elite are starting to grasp this, but they can't back down (yet). Something's, actually many things are going to give at some point. EU, petro-dollar, yen, china housing bubble, etc etc. I put no time-tag on any of this, but I do know that everything that is not sustainable will stop eventually.
The hardcore EU elite are planning bail-ins to "save" the euro. So maybe it will plateau a little before falling more.
To reflect the evolution completely you would have to factor in the evolution of Euro vis à vis the USD during this period. This since the benchmark of many goods is done in USD and not in Euro.
the point is that it's a step toward one world government, one word currency;
lead by the int'l banksters & their dearest imf obviously
German mark would have been much higher without the union. It's in German is favor that the rest of the members economies are in decline. Planned, yes me thinks.
I read some time ago that in any conflict, financial, political, or social, ask three questions.
Who benefits
Why
How
It's is still amazing that even now,people cannot see the formation of the EU for what really is:
Ethnic cleansing of white populations of all European countries by mass, uncontrolled third world immigration -i.e population replacement,the term "free trade zone" was how it was sold forty/fifty years ago,with,obviously no mention of immigration.
EU contries all have hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants,economic migrants, every year and yet nobody-especially mainstream media and press ever asks the question "WHY?"Why was there no mass third worl immigration before the EU?Surely people cannot be so blind as to see the obvious connection?
Want to know what it is like living in a multicultural politically correct Europe? Just Google "Sweden+Rape"; "rotherham child abuse scandal".
Then ask why would the politicians of those countries tolerate it.