Breaking: United Kingdom Ejected from the EU!

[Beet]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111103-707493.html

"BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--Any nation that exits the euro zone must also leave the European Union, a European Commission spokeswoman said Thursday.

Karolina Kottova said the European Commission's interpretation of EU law remains that "the treaties don't foresee an exit from the euro zone" without a country also exiting the EU. The Commission, the EU's executive arm, is charged with acting as the guardian of the treaties."

</satire, of course>

But in all seriousness, this is absolutely INSANE because the EU is a fundamentally sound concept, whereas the euro is a fundamentally UNSOUND concept, at least with the present configuration of public opinion in Europe.

[Beet]

As UK like Denmark have a out-op to Euro-membership, this won't touch UK. Whether the Euro is a good or bad idea isn't the what this statement is about. It tells Greece that they're welcome to leave the Euro, but it means leaving EU too.

It needlessly increases the price of leaving the euro, which is very bad if you think that leaving the euro is the right policy. And it's a transparent attempt to blackmail Greece.

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It's not 'enforcing' anything. The treaties don't foresee an exit from the euro zone, period. So by exiting the euro zone, Greece is already breaking the treaty. Kicking them out of the EU as well is unnecessary and needlessly damaging.

[Beet]

I apologize for the tone of that last post. I tend to lash out way too much, like the Joe Pesci character in Goodfellas.

[Beet]

Calling for a military coup is trolling, opebo. You've been reported.

[Beet]

part of my 10am-3pm nightmare marathon today included a dream about a Greek military coup, backed by the West.

Well I'm never really against those, and anyway they often lead to better economic policy than the asinine neoliberalism that seems to inevitably follow from 'democracy'.

Where I'd like to see a military coup would be in germany, since Merkel is so stupid she doesn't know how to press 'PRINT'.

While not possible, removing her would certainly be more helpful than anything that could be done in Greece. And by anything I mean "anything".

Incidentally, Lewis, what's your view of this whole thing?