Euroland updates

One interesting side-effect of Brexit has been the sharp drop in interest in the actual runnings of the EU. Now that the #FBPE crowd are all around, there can be no criticism of 'the project' to do so is to undermine everything.


And on the Brexiteers side, having sort of won the vote, the focus on just how rubbish aspects of the EU are has fallen away - sadly in favour of infighting and mass navel gazing.


Two current issues demand some attention. The first is economic, as we approach the top of the cycle (sadly for much of Europe as EU members have stagnated for over a decade, shame), members need to get their act together. Italy is the key concern - it has a debt to GDP ration of 130% and increasing. The new populist Government is trying tax cuts to remedy the austerity which has not worked for them for 10 years. The jury is out as to whether it will work, but abandoning the policy chosen by the Bundesbank EU Central bank is not going down well. There are real threats of fines as well as much hand-wringing. Longer-term, France owns a third of Italy's debt - should Italy go the way of Greece we will have 2011 Euro run part two, run harder!


Then there is the result of the EU elections - without going into the huge detail here is an excellent article on Politico.


My main takeaways from that are the EU is entirely made up of smoke-filled rooms and driven by the whimsy of Merkel and Macron - but only at a distance. The likely EU President of Guy Verhofstadt should be enough to even make Remainers take a sharp breath - the guy is a maniacal integrationst zealot. The democratic will of the EU - increasing the share of anti-EU parties in Parliament only to see the most pro-integration President ever get elected in the back room deals - seems to be a winding river indeed.


Remaining will be such fun!