Jim asked me the same some days ago, and I gave him an answer, some pages earlier.

However, the Brits do not run away - they are not part of the Euro, and they pose since all beginning with their distanced attitude towards the EU, claiming that it were them saving Europoe and the EU from itself. You cannot run from what you never have been a real part of.

Anyhow, I more and more think that a split of the Eurozone, and a split in the EU as well, is becoming inevitable, and will take place this way or the other way. The truth becomes so obvious these days that you cannot deny it endlessly without being brought to a psychiatry. The only question is how much damage Merkel and Sarkozy will allow to take place to their national finances in attempts to delay it any longer. And France'S needs to pay dangerously high interests on its credits now, too, it is definitely in danger. The split should be realised before next German elections, because it is possible that the socialists will take over from Merkel, and they already have voiced repeatedly that they want to sacrifice German finances to save all EU members and all Euro members and that the EU treaties should be changed to no longer forbid bailing out other nations, but to make it legally binding for Germany to bail others out - without limit. And then I fear even worse - and to do worse than orientationless, opportunistic Merkel - that really means something.

And how the German citizen feels? Betrayed. Most of us never wanted the Euro. We also do not want the many bailouts of banks and other nations. We guarantee for bond securities that even by just the "white", official numbers surpass our yearly national budget - and ciritcs show calculations that reveal that the hidden numbers indeed could show to be three times as high than is being admitted by the government.

That'S why the government avoids it like the plague to ask us. It is rumoured that a new, Euro-critical party is about to be set up, a project guided by a well-known former head of the industry and business chamber with quite some sober and rational thoughts. If that party would be formed, the election analysts say that it probably would get 25-35% of the votes from starting line on, immediately, basing on representative polls they did on that since early summer. The remarkable thing is that these polls show a stable share of around 30% - it is not just one singular random poll.

Germans are pretty much fed up with the Euro, I think that is pretty fair to say. The gap between the people and the political caste is very, very wide.

The EU already is miscionstructed beyond all imagination. The majority settings are set so insane that you cannot believe it. Germany pays for a quarter of the EU budget, but has just 2 of the 23 election votes in the ECB control gremium. Malta and I think Slovenia (or was it some other small state, Cyprus maybe) together pay even less than 0.3% of that budget - but together also bring in 2 votes although financially being 80 times less important for the EU budget !?

Such gremiums should represent actual realities. Not misled leftist feverdreams of how equal the dwarf is to the giant. Nothing against Malta, but the EU would not feel it if it would seize to exist over night. Now try to say that over France, Germany! You get what I mean, do you. The German key personnell has all retired from the ECB in frustration, the candidate for the new presdiednt'S chair even withdraw his candidacy in advance, one could even say: Merkel's policies of ignoring obvious realities and increasing the damage to Germany almost mobbed them out.The result is that the weak, even unimportant players have the say there and that the German financial stability culture that once was admired in the D-Mark and the Bundesbank and that was said to be the example for the ECB to follow, has no chance anymore. French Trichet gave it up and started the killing of the ECB's independence. Italian Draghi continues on that course, and at increased pace it seems, turning it into a european Fed and switching on the money-printing machines. We lost the D-Mark due to French demand as a price for reunification. But we got nothing adequate in return, the ECB is not, and the Europ is not. It is said these days that Germany would profit from the Euro mkore than any other country, that it helped the economy. But that is not really correct. Our economy helped itself - by doing its homework and having chnaged certain structural problems that other nations did not tackle so far. As a result our economy is more productive and competitive than that of many others. But even our economy is now stalling. - Just two days ago a national lobby of exporting business in germany said that the Euzro ghets massively overestimated nby the government as a factor for the boom of the past years. Business says it would not fear that miuch a return to the D-Mark, than the government says it would be feared. In other words: business is judging by realities it faces, numbers, but the govenment forms its decisions for the EU on the basis of ideology over what is wanted to be politically build and named "EU".

Why political Germany is insane like that? Read my reply to Jim: #134, page 9. Merkel's trick so far was to equal the EU with Europe, and the Euro with the EU: "if the Euro fails, then fails the EU, then fails peace and stability in europe." Of course that is Quatsch. The EU lived long before the Europ came along, and it lived better and was more stable and potent to act, than later, when it had invited so many egoist cooks into the EU kitchen that everybody stands an everybody else's feet. Peace we had due to the threat from outside that made NATO to stand together, and the shared experiences of WWII.

^ Excellent post :yep: