Is the EU a pussy?

It want change much in economic sense, European economic union is 50 years old. 'New' european states arent that important economically. But the bottom line is US and EU are net importers of goods so compettion is not an issue after all same multinational corporations operate here and there.

EU enlargement is more of a political importance to europeans well to French and Germans mostly. Thats I reckon the whole idea. To level with US politically on the world stage, to have independent political influence over the world affairs, get their super power status back.

Hmmm...You may be right there...

But just say there was some competition (on some front )...say the US federal banking system for example...

What are we looking at stats wise...?

How much muscle has the EU actually got?

EU and US GDP is about equal, the number of multinational corporations in EU is smaller, American multinationals in general are stronger and bigger as well as their presence in other countries but the gap no doubt will decrease in the future. In Western Europe services are major contributer to GDP, south and east still oriented to manufacturing (you cant compete with Asia on that one) and agriculture.

EU has a lot of problems. To name a few - high unemployemnt in Germany and similar in France, expensive welfare system, massive subsidies for agricultural sector, burden of eastern european states - they will require a lot of money for economic restructuring from eu budget. Low GDP growth, though high in the 'new' states. Political disagremenets within the union, UK, Sweden, Denmark reluctance to join euro, struggle for political leadership etc.

Federal reserve doesnt have much to fear yet from the bank in Germany. US dollar will stay the world currency for a long time before Euro will become a currency of accumulation. In fact, Japan and Eastern Asia have been major contributor to US financial and monetary success they keep enormous funds in the US currency (e.g. Japan has got around a trill $$ in their vaults, China half a trill) that along will keep USD a currency of a choice. Also its common for developing economies keep some of their budget surpluses in US treasury bills.

great!

thanks for that.

so they are about equal in size...but the EU is less cohesive...

now the only thing that worries me is, that unlike the political systems involved in the EU…..
the European banking systems may be very cohesive.

Can I assume, needsandwants, that you are American? What have you got to fear from us Europeans? Are you afraid that one day, someone else may be the biggest muscle in the world? Good. I hope it happens. I'm British, and pro-European, and I hope that the day will come when the EU can tell the US to kiss its multinational multilingual ass! America seems to have given itself the job of being the world's policeman, and one day the EU will be able to tell you all to **** off.

I'm not anti-American, but I am anti-American-government. And please no-one give me that crap about how it's not your fault - who is voting for these monkeys if not the American public? Britain has had it's fair share of bad leaders, but at least we've not been able to force their opinions on the rest of the world.

no I'm not American...

sorry to spoil the fun.

I am fascinated with America as an Economic entity having braved the perils of trying to tame a large land despite all the problems of geography and so on.
I mean what do you do with a country that big ..no roads ..a stinker of a desert and a few dastardly mountain ranges...lucky if you get a couple of good rivers to help.

What about the Boston Tea party...and how The Statue of liberty turned up... Why one of the states is named after a French king...

It's been an interesting struggle for them.

I take it back then! The tone of your original post gave me that impression.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you."

!!!

my bad sorry.

how else are you gonna get people to react without a good headline...

I dunno tabloid headline tactics in such a respectable forum...I should be ashamed.

Good job, anyway - it certainly got me going. Keep up the good work my friend!

hey...just between me and you...

Maybe the EU isn't bracing itself for the US...
it may be more interested in the way of the dragon.

Bruce Lee!

BTW, where are you from?

Someone was saying that the USD was secure as the world's reserve currency.

But Saddam started selling oil in euros...now of course Iraqi oil has reverted to dollars.

But what about OPEC? I think the US is terrified that OPEC might be tempted to switch to the euro.

The United States has so ****ed off the rest of the world, that given the choice I think many countries would prefer to buy oil in euros.

If the euro supplanted the dollar as the world reserve currency, that would have a dramatic affect on living standards in the US. Instead of just printing more dollars to buy oil, the Americans would have to earn euros. The dollar would crash.

The expanded EU now 25 countries 450 million people, with all that wealth of history culture business etc etc is bound to be seen as a threat by some in the US. It is my contention that N American owned newspapers such as the Sun, Telegraph and Times advocate Britain staying out of the euro, because they don't want to see it get stronger by Britain joining France Germany Italy etc etc

Very astute observation about the Murdoch rags, Steve.

I'm currently working a project to estimate the future of the world's economy and politics for a sci-fi novel I want to write, and am compiling data about the financial weight of Europe (including the current non-EU states like Switzerland), Asia, Oceania etc. Once I have some numbers I'll post in here, and we can see if we can find a way to supplant the US as the biggest fish.

I think by any measure the EU is already the biggest fish. Now if we had the biggest gun as well...

2002 data from CIA website:

US: Pop = 290m, GDP = $10.45 trillion
EU: Pop = 455m, GDP = $10.43 trillion
Europe: Pop = 797m, GDP = $14.19 trillion

Looks like if the whole of Europe, from Iceland to Portugal, Russia to Turkey could join together, we could seriously get things done...

yea well you gotta watch that

the whole idea of finance is to build good infrastructure...get drains put in roads that don't gridlock, law that minimises crime...
happy kids in well resourced schools...
you don't really want to put your attention on how to wind up dead in some foreign ditch fighting for some intellectuals vision of a better future.

Many OPEC and other countries might not like the US. But to switch to euro would be more of a political decision. Financially its doesnt make sense just yet. It might change over time though..

These OPEC countries, good example Saudi Arabia invested way too much in the US currency and America in general.

To suddenly start trading in euro and abandon dollar would be suicidal, it is not in anyone interest to devalue their own assets its like a vicious circle. The more of the green 'paper' you accumulate and invest in America( and everybody does) the more difficult it is to pull out. Even if fundamentally $$ isnt sound a weight of worlds giants like Japan will support it stability.