Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
[WAR: So, let me get this straight: B16 is wanting major changes to the world's financial system, and Chancellor Merkel wants the world to accept rules based on Germany's social market?!
How 'bout that! This sounds like the perfect opportunity for the Vatican and Germany to work together to make the world a better place. And combining their efforts would obviously make it a Christian Social model.
So what better person to coordinate this project than a Christian Social Union member from B16's own Bavaria -- with leadership skills and experience. And the most ideal candidate would also be a personal friend of B16 -- like "the one" who recently had another private meeting with B16.]
For the first time in 80 years the Vatican will from tomorrow stop automatically adopting Italian laws because of potential "anti-Catholic" legislation.
Amid fears of new laws on euthanasia and gay marriage, the Vatican's legal chief said that the rupture was due to growing contrast between Italian civil legislation and "the irreversible principles of the Church."
Under the Lateran Treaty of 1929 between Italy and the Vatican, signed by the then Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and the Vatican Secretary of State, Italian laws are automatically incorporated into the Vatican legal code.
However the Treaty allowed for exceptions in cases where there was "radical incompatibility" with the basic principles of canon law. Until now this had rarely been applied.
But under a new Vatican statute which was signed in October by Pope Benedict XVI and comes into force today, all Italian laws would be closely examined by the Vatican from now on before being adopted as part of the Holy See's own legislation.
The Vatican's new statute also says the Holy See will in future scrutinise international treaties before deciding whether to give them "explicit" approval.
If the purpose of the euro is to confront US dollar hegemony and turn the EU into a monetary superpower, it is a signal triumph. But politicians should be careful what they wish for.
Oddly, a slew of regional currencies have begun to circulate in German regions since the launch of EMU. Sociologists are baffled.
But success is bitter-sweet. The eurozone itself is in deep recession. A currency surge at this juncture is a cruel blow for export industry.
The point of monetary union -- at least for Paris -- was to stop this happening. EMU was supposed to shield Europe against the fall-out from Anglo-Saxon "casino capitalism" and to ensure a stable currency.
Stable it is not. The Élysée never imagined that it would be a currency on steroids, spiking so high that it hollows out the French industrial core and drives Airbus to the brink.
But such claims and counter-claims hardly touch on the deeper question of whether EMU is a viable undertaking over the long run -- or an "optimal currency area" (OCA) in economic jargon.
Ten years on, the controversy rages. Both sides have enough evidence to say with equal vehemence, "I told you so". It all depends which part of the picture you look at.
Let us not forget that the euro is a revolutionary construct. Never before have sovereign states of equal weight agreed to abolish their currencies -- some dating back to the Middle Ages -- and tied their destiny to a supranational bank.
We will never know how the German people would have voted if allowed to decide on the fate of their beloved D-Mark, the symbol of national renewal.
Currency unions come and go, typically revolving around one dominant power. The euro is a different animal.
It has no political anchor. It is a leap into the unknown without a state, treasury, debt union, or EU social security net to back it up.
As Europe's slump deepens this year we may find out if it matters whether or not the euro is a stateless currency.
We may find out too whether euroland enjoys the solidarity of a nation, "all for one and one for all", when the chips are down. German body-language so far does not suggest that it does.
Flashback...
As for France, its concern was, first and foremost, to do away with the mark. From reliable sources close to Mitterrand, we learn that he saw the Maastricht Treaty as equivalent to having Germany sign on the dotted line of a second Versailles Treaty.
Flashback...
Thatcher's nemesis (scroll down to this section)
Let us recall the circumstances under which Germany was forced to accept European monetary union.
The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, and then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl issued his 10-Point Program, which called for close cooperation between the 2 confederated states of Germany, leading toward federation.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher thereupon launched her "Fourth Reich" slander campaign against Germany, while French President François Mitterrand threatened that France would only agree to reunification, if Germany renounced the deutschemark and agreed to the earlier anticipated monetary union.
Mitterrand advisor Jacques Attali wrote later, in a biography of his boss, that Mitterrand had even threatened Kohl with war and a revival of the Triple Entente, in the event that Germany refused to comply.
Two days later, one of Kohl's closest advisors, Alfred Herrhausen, was assassinated. Kohl later described the pressure coming down on him at the EU summit meeting in Strasbourg in early December, to give up the deutschemark, as his life's darkest hour.
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