The European Union may survive 2012, but the Euro won't.

[cherokeeprogressive]

Greece, France, Spain and a handful of others will go back to sovereign currencies and hyperinflation ending in default to commitments to the Euro. They'll walk away from their promises in the same fashion as American homeowners are walking away from the promises they made to the banks who put them into their homes.

While the "United States of Europe" was a grand idea, it's not going to survive. Sorry Francois... You'll never be seen as the European George Washington.

[djean111]

1. I was in Denmark, on business, back when they were

voting on whether to join the EU, or something connected with that.
Every Dane I talked with said they would not join the EU if it meant using the euro, because
they did not want their currency to be controlled by Germany.
To this day, Denmark does not use the euro.

As for walking away from promises, why is it a sound business decision when a corporation does that, a sad but of course "necessary" thing if a government does that, but a horrible thing if a homeowner does that?

[MattBaggins]

2. One particular load of malarky in your OP

American homeowners are walking away from the promises they made to the banks who put them into their homes

Scratch that... reverse it.

[pampango]

3. The resurgence of nationalism (pushed by the right, of course) has never been good for Europe.

Nationalism, particularly during hard economic times like the Great Depression, has led to many wars on the continent over the centuries most recently in the 1930's.

It's easy to think "Europeans are too smart now to let nationalism lead them into war". That was true for the post-WWII generation that had seen first hand what nationalism can lead to. They went about creating the EU which has led to decades of peace, prosperity and progressive governments on an open continent.

We're a couple of generations removed from WWII now and I'm not sure that some of the lessons taught by European history won't have to be relearned the hard way by a new generation. Those on the right (like France's National Front) want to pull out of the EU and put strict controls on trade and freedom of movement between European countries.

It should not be surprising that the nationalism push is coming from the right. It has happened before.

[JonLP24]

4. LOL

@ promises to banks. The same banks that committed mortgage fraud, predatory lending to the sub-prime market, and adjustable-rate mortgages.