Europe is Broken

another goody from The Drudge EU leaders have proven to be more gimptastical then i had previously thought.

For the new members, that offer was an opportunity to prove their worth. Criticizing the "egoism" of countries driven by national interests, Prime Minister Marek Belka of Poland said, "Nobody will be able to say that for Poland, the European Union is just a pile of money."

But for the older members, it was a humiliation. "When I heard one after the other, all the new member states - each poorer than the other - say that in the interest of an agreement they would be ready to renounce part of the money they are due, I was ashamed," Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and the departing European Union president, told journalists after talks collapsed.

These countries in "New Europe" tried to set an example and it didn't work......

That should give you some idea of the level of problems here. And if a leader announces shame about this, not something lighter, then it also shows just how divided things are really getting now.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain leads the camp that wants a Europe with fewer trade and employment barriers and a more free-market orientation to better compete against rising giants like India and China. Yet he rejected all criticism of Britain for vetoing the final agreement on the budget, which would have required Britain to reduce the annual rebate, now $6 billion a year, that it gets back from its contribution to the European Union budget.

By contrast, Mr. Chirac and some of his allies are skeptical of what they call the "Anglo-Saxon model" and protective of the continental "social model" that offers citizens a protective economic security shield. He refused to compromise Friday night on Mr. Blair's demand that France reduce the $13 billion in farm subsidies it receives every year from the European Union.

And, Tony was willing to freeze the rebate, if some reform of the farm subsidies happened.

So Chirac was being an obstructionist on the final budget.

And the fiat currency will be falling some more in trading on monday, as the very faith which empowers all currencies proceeds to wither away