Euronomics

When I was a schoolboy enrolled in a system that still valued such things, I was given an assignment to identify the various countries of Europe on an outlined map of the Continent using colored pencils. I remember my father helping me with this homework, picking the colors historically associated with each country; red for Britain, blue for France and so on. He explained that each European nation was the home of a specific nationality, and how even he, who had been a newsman stationed in Europe for many years, suddenly became perplexed when Liechtenstein was to be found.

Today there are those in Europe who would wish to color my childhood map with only one pencil. To them, the differences that define various nations?the guilder of Holland, the flag of France, the mace in Parliament?are not the symbols of hundreds of years of cultural evolution and dramatic history, but rather merely embarassments. They are anachronisms that impede the free flow of goods and the making of money.

Above all, it is the making of money that is driving the debate on the future of European governance. Large industrial interests have long argued that national borders and individual currencies make doing business on the Continent needlessly expensive, leaving European firms less competitive than America's. Rectification of this situation would require an overhaul of European business practices and trade regulations that might very well cause temporary social dislocations. For Europe's politicians, this is not an option. Thus the introduction of the euro, the Continent's single currency, symbol of an integrated, federated Europe, which could challenge American economic supremacy without the pain of real reform.

Clearly, the euro and what it represents are fundamentally dishonest, for it seeks to replace national currencies that are based upon the individual economic realities of each nation with the illusion of a supra-currency representing strength born in solidarity. Contrasted to the currencies it was invented to supersede it is as copper is to gold, as plain glass is to stained glass. It is a fraud of monumental proportions.

In the coming weeks the euro will probably drop in value to below 80 cents. After that, it's anyone's guess. All this as part of a world-lifting effort to economically compete with the United States. But it's not even true competition. The recent merger of General Electric and Honeywell, aborted by the European Commission, is a perfect example. To the commission, the merger was a danger, not to the consumer, but to established European companies. This is a form of corporate subsidization that does not entail a financial element, merely protection from outside competition.

Just as Japanese banks have a reputation for listing failed holdings as assets, Europe has a custom of supporting failing companies in order to protect jobs. For the ship of state this retards innovation and stifles entrepreneural inclinations, but it keeps the boat afloat. The proposition that old, poorly performing companies can lay the foundations for new companies that can, in turn, create new products for new markets falls under the heading of "risk"; and risk is to be avoided at all costs. Noted economic analyst James Cramer, speaking on CNBC, may have said it best: "Europe is a protectionist bastion of weak economic conditions." But for all the things that the euro and the European Union are not, they are the stalking horses for other, far more ambitious plans.

Last April, the German government unveiled a proposal for a European Union with a popularly elected European Parliament and a European Commission that would wield far greater power than at present. The New York Times quoted Prof. Reimund Seidelmann of the University of Giessen as saying, "There is a long tradition in German foreign policy of giving up sovereignty in order to increase, indirectly, Germany's influence over Europe? If you look at the European Monetary Union, this is basically a replica of the German system. This has been the German recipe for increasing power ever since the end of World War II."

The phones must have rung all night in the offices at Whitehall, the Hague and the Elysee Palace. Following the rejection of the euro by Danish voters last year, and the unwillingness of the Norwegians to even join the EU, none other than French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin felt compelled to state, "I want a Europe, but I remain attached to my nation."

Perhaps Europe's leaders will now follow their citizens. It seems that the people of Europe want to retain their birthrights and find their separate ways to independent, prosperous destinies. I think I'll save my colored pencils for my son.