Jones To The Grindstone

I sympathize with those in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It’s not easy making that patchwork quilt look good. Bringing together 27 member countries of vastly different, proud cultures, while only 17 of them use the euro as their currency, and just about none of their politics are united – what a stretch.

Ever made a quilt? I have. It’s about the perfect cutting and secure sewing of varying fabric pieces to fit together, making an attractive coverlet. If the cuts aren’t straight, of the exact measurements, or the colorful fabric swatches clash with each other, the end result is a cattywampus embarrassment that no one wants to display: a failure of precise planning, engineering, and executing. Sounds like the lingering European Union (EU)’s euro crisis.

I can sit here and judge because I know what that’s like, in a way. I consider the U.S.’s longtime federal budget flop to have some similarities.

Often the U.S. is called the “Melting Pot,” but in reality it’s more of a chunky stew. Right now, Europe’s crisis of trying to get a bouquet of cultures to agree with each other on how to meet financial goals, how to deal with the effect of immigrants flowing across their borders, and balancing the reality of certain EU states holding more economic power than others – it sounds so familiar. 

It’s because the U.S. has been doing it for more than two centuries while the EU, formerly the European Economic Community (EEC), was first founded in 1957. On top of that, the common currency of the euro arrived 42 years later on Jan. 1, 1999, and even that was in “cyber form” until paper bills and coins arrived two years later.

The EU is still young and inexperienced in comparison to the U.S. Also, it’s a bit ironic since the Europeans seem to enjoy rubbing it in how juvenile the U.S. is compared to their much more lengthy histories.

The EU’s population is close to 500 million and America’s is around 313 million, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) official Web site. The numbers were the latest since mid-July of 2011. Nevertheless, America has more states to placate when arguing about a problem. With 50 states and Washington, D.C., there’s quite a spread of multicultural influences from within the regions (such as the West Coast, the Deep South, the Northeast, the Midwest) to the influence of immigrant enclaves, from long ago and now.

Can the world, or at least the EU members, now see how hard it is to manage it all? Do they now “get” what it’s like to strive for a stable economy, try to handle all the varying cultures without offending or disenfranchising some group?

Unfortunately, the EU has some members with less than desirable credit ratings, such as Greece and Ireland. So, not only does the EU have our overspending problem, they ran off and did the “bail out thing,” too, like we did with our mismanaged financial industry.

According to the CIA.gov page, the EU’s external debt as of June 2011 was at $16.08 trillion and the U.S.’s same bill was at $14.7 trillion. Both the EU and the U.S. are scrambling to solve their budget nightmares. For the world to lose total faith in the euro and the dollar – chaos.

Lately, there have been suggestions of a “two-speed” Europe. This has a ring of “us and them” to it, where the stronger economic countries figure out a way to slowly flick the “little people” off their shoulders like unwanted lint. The biggest, most stable economies are Germany, France (who may drop in the ratings soon), Netherlands, Denmark, the U.K., and Sweden. Of note, those last three countries don’t even use the euro.

Supporting the notion of superiority, I read some snarky blog posts on the U.K.’s The Telegraph newspaper. One by Lord Norman Tebbit on Oct. 28, 2011, stated that “Once again, Britain must save the masters of Europe from self-destruction.”

Another blog, “Europe on the breadline: Greeks and Italians blame culture of corruption,” by Jon Henley of Britain’s The Guardian, stated on Oct. 21, 2011, that he found “nepotism, bribery and systemic low-level corruption are as much to blame for southern Europe’s crisis as anything else.”

Americans do that, too, blaming someone else’s culture within the union. Sometimes it’s true.

Some of you may be wondering about the European monetary superhero, Norway. Their currency, the kroner, is strong and the country has a budget surplus. Well, they’re not in the EU. Switzerland and Iceland aren’t either. Iceland being out of the game is OK, considering their economy went belly-up in 2009.

The CIA page states, “Because of the great differences in per capita income among member states … and in national attitudes toward issues like inflation, debt, and foreign trade, the EU faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies.” Yep.