On the EU from the Left

Sorry for the delayed posting. I have been wrapped up in issues of my father's estate, and have ignored my blogging.

A good friend sent me a very interesting article looking at Trump, Merkel, and the EU from a leftist perspective.

I found the piece well worth reading, even if I don't agree with all of its conclusions. The author, as you will see, is none other than Yanis Varoufakis, once Greece's "far left" economic minister, and a prominent member of what I, at the time, called Greece's honest crooks (also here).

He tried to negotiate a better deal for Greece with the EU, and was stymied by mostly Germany, and left office. As I have written many times (here and here, for example) the EU tried to force its members to "swim with an anchor," aka, the euro--some successfully resisted. Varoufakis seems to agree, somewhat, but doesn't reach the same ultimate conclusion that I did, to wit, the EU, itself, is the problem not just the euro and its current crop of leaders. The EU, after all, was overwhelmingly a political project which sought to balance the political, military, and economic power of the United States, and do so with "magic totems" such as the euro and a massive and overpaid bureaucracy. It, of course, failed to do that, as President Trump has amply demonstrated repeatedly, e.g., his easy destruction of the Paris Climate Accord, and of the odious Iran "deal." The EU, in other words, could "balance" the US only as long as the US allowed itself to be checked, in other words, President Obama. Well, Trump ain't Obama; he won't help the Lilliputians tie down the US.

Varoufakis bemoans the EU leadership's obstinate refusal to make reforms, and blames it for the rise of populist movements in Europe that now threaten the whole EU "project." He particularly blames Merkel, as I have, for the EU's current predicament, but seems unable to grasp the monumental error she made by opening Europe to a rapid Muslim invasion. He makes a good case that the EU is heading for the dust bin, e.g., recent Italian elections, but ignores perhaps the single greatest indicator of this, Brexit--something which this humble blog did not. He also attacks Trump and his policies, although understanding their origins, as a threat to the EU project, a project which Varoufakis, it seems, would like to preserve--hey, I said I didn't agree with everything he wrote, right?

Varoufakis sees as negative the rise of movements to defend national sovereignty (I don't and wrote about that here, for example) and lashes out at the Trump administration several times. I, obviously, don't agree with his criticism of President Trump, but it is an interesting and well-written argument. That alone is something to be welcomed in these highly divisive times in which insults and craziness substitute for rational discussion and debate.

Anyhow, hope to have more thoughtful commentary soon. Back to the lawyers.