I just quibble that the specific proposals Merkel and Schäuble are bringing in terms of fedeal Europe are nothing like federal Germany: no federal government with a significant budget of its own that is elected by and responsible to a federal parliament, no transfers from richer to poorer states, instead undemocratic control of national budgets and a US-style elected President.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Vereinigte Staaten von Europa is also a common term.

That said , I don't see any proposal for a true federal state either.

"Structural" is Economist for "made up to fit my preconceived agenda."

See, e.g., "structural unemployment," "structural deficit," "structural reform."

If you want to meaningfully speak of a structural deficit, you would speak of the deficit at full employment. But that's not what they do. They speak of the deficit at the "structural" rate of unemployment, which is a total nonsense.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.