13 Sad Realities of the European Union
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Transcript of 13 Sad Realities of the European Union
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13 Sad Realities of the European Union
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Let’s start by looking back at 1914.
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Europe was relatively peaceful at that time, until…
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Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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This was the beginning of World War I.
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By 1916 World War I developed into the worst war Europe had ever seen.
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Just two decades later, Europe was torn apart by a second world war.
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By the end of the war, millions were dead, and no one wanted to fight ever again.
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Therefore, agreements were designed, to prevent another and potentially even more disastrous European war.
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Those agreements would evolve into today’s European Union.
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The thinking was that nations bound together economically would have less incentive to destroy each other.
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The assumption, however, has proven to be wrong.
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Let’s take a look 13 sad realities of the European Union
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Refugee Crisis1.
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Refugees from Africa and the Middle East, are struggling across the Mediterranean. Thousands are dying as their boats capsize and sink.
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The EU is trying to accommodate those whom it can’t stop.
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Greece in Shambles
2.
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Greece is chafing under EU-imposed austerity as its economy endures depression-like conditions.
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Spain and Portugal are wondering if they are next.
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Growing Division3.
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Poland and Hungary are fighting against EU mandates that disrupt their internal affairs.
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Wild Deficit Spending
4.
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Several EU governments are engaged in deficit spending that exceeds EU guidelines.
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The EU’s inability to stop them has continued to expose its inability to enforce its decisions.
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ZIRP and QE5.
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The European Central Bank is holding interest rates below zero and buying private assets with public money.
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It continues to prop up insolvent banks that must fail if the Eurozone economy is to ever recover.
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Confrontation with Russia
6.
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Russia and NATO are facing off in the Baltic Sea, forcing already stretched governments to boost defense spending.
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Increased Terrorism
7.
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ISIS-sponsored or ISIS-inspired terrorists are plotting attacks like the ones in Nice and Brussels.
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End of Schengen Zone
8.
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Border checks are in force within the supposedly free-travel Schengen zone countries, making one of the EU’s greatest achievements into a mockery.
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Brexit Copycats9.
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Sizable minorities or even majorities in other European countries are agitating for their own exit opportunities.
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Think Catalonia in Spain, the Lega Norde in Italy, the Marine Le Pen in France.
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Right-Wing Parties
10.
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The Supreme Court of Austria ruled that an extremely close presidential vote must be taken again.
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This opens up the possibility that a far-right-wing party might take control of a major European country.
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Italian Banking Crisis
11.
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Italian banks are down some €400 billion, an enormous proportion of Italy’s GDP.
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The Italians have successfully extended and pretended for years, but with government debt, the refugee crisis, and now Brexit, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has his hands full.
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Germany’s Invisible Crisis
12.
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Germany’s economy is teetering.
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As they may soon be dealing with shrinking export volumes, just like China is now.
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DistortedMarkets
13.
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The growing criticism of the ECB is growing, and negative rates are distorting European financial markets.
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As you can see, Europe faces a host of serious problems…
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And has done little to resolve all the issues, since it routinely takes years to achieve consensus.
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The EU is trying to make the old agreement work when it clearly doesn’t…
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And now that member nations know it doesn’t work, maybe they can design something that looks more like a trade union.
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It would also need additional characteristics that don’t impinge upon national identity.
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That would be an EU far different than we see today.
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Forging it will require a completely different vision of the future than what we have seen in both the founding and the running of the current EU.
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They have to rework 10,000+ pages of agreements, with bureaucrats fighting every inch of the way, trying to maintain their control.
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The task is daunting, and it’s not altogether clear that they can pull it off.
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But as we all know, the first step in solving a problem is to acknowledge the problem.
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Now that it has, all we can really do is wait to see if there is the willingness for step two.
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