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I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the EU. Or whether it was ever so and I was just fooled as a child.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 12th, 2014 at 07:28:47 PM EST
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So many parameters changed while blinkered elites went on labouring under the mantra pool economic interests and the politics, law, culture will end up by following.

Finally they pooled incompatible economic interests.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 02:53:37 AM EST
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I'm not sure that "incompatible economic interests" is exactly true. Incompatible economic aims, whether or not they're in anyone's (except for a few bankers) interest.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:15:23 AM EST
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Economic superstitions incompatible with reality, actually.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:15:57 AM EST
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Sure, but nothing stopping you having aims incompatible with reality.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:28:09 AM EST
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That's certainly part of the problem, but I fear that the original mantra considered that even that would eventually come out in the wash.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:46:52 AM EST
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Colman:
nothing stopping you having aims incompatible with reality.

They make reality, remember!

Wishful thinking'Confidence in the market' hushes all opposition.

Because growth.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Mar 23rd, 2014 at 08:29:24 AM EST
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I thought we catalogued it fairly comprehensively. The death of solidarity, at every level, the triumph of national/personal interest.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 05:45:24 AM EST
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Yes, but the institutional booby traps were laid down by idealists in 1992.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:14:49 AM EST
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If there had been idealists running it now we might have found different escapes from the traps.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:15:53 AM EST
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Remember Straight Talk from Juncker (February 12th, 2010)

He was the last surviving signatory of the Maastricht Treaty, and the last member of the European Council who was genuinely in favour of the "community method". And yet...

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 13th, 2014 at 06:18:10 AM EST
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