Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
> That's because you are in the US mostly reading US
>media and lit. Everybody in Europe knows it is a big deal
>and if you are there reading the local media at all for any
>extended period of time it is very clear that it is a big
>deal and that everybody knows it. It is a constant, almost
>daily, topic of news and commentary in almost every EU
>member.
I read a British newspaper every day, so I'm not quite the provincial you
make me out to be. That British daily, the one on pink paper, has devoted a
lot of ink to the diplomacy and mechanics of EMU, but very little to the
social and economic effects. There's no historical precedent for a monetary
union on this scale - GEMU isn't exactly an inspiring precedent for the
whole continent, is it? It seems that Europeans are sleepwalking into
something quite momentous that their leaders have prepared for them without
explaining it - the euro's birth is less than 10 months away. It will
almost certainly result in more American-style financial and labor markets;
do Europeans know that and understand what it means? Maybe, given your vast
experience as a globe trotter, Barkley, you know better, but from my
admittedly distant vantage point, I think not.
EMU's going to have a big effect on the outside world, so the lack of
interest on the part of that outside world is a bit unsettling too.
Doug
