S2 Ep38. The Crisis of our Times. Part 12. The European Union: Between a Rock and Hard Place. Part A

<p>The conflicts and contradictions of the European Union are explained, in particular the manner in which its monetary policy breaks the treaties of the Union. Populists and nationalist reactions in the "north" are explained in this context. The episode ends with a poem by W.B.Yeats The Second Coming:</p> <p align="justify">Turning and turning in the widening gyre</p> <p align="justify">The falcon cannot hear the falconer;</p> <p align="justify">Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;</p> <p align="justify">Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,</p> <p align="justify">The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere</p> <p align="justify">The ceremony of innocence is drowned;</p> <p align="justify">The best lack all conviction, while the worst</p> <p align="justify">Are full of passionate intensity.</p> <p>Part B will follow in the next episode which examines the centripetal and centrifugal  forces acting on the  EU government and the member states. It will examine the idea that contrary to the centralising tendency of the EU government it might be that the abandoning of the Euro (and therefore the currency union) is the only way of saving the European Union.</p> <p>References:</p> <p>1.The Bitcoin Standard (2018) by Saifdean Ammous. especially chapters 4-7;</p> <p>2. The blog of Tuomas Malinen on the www.gnseconomics.com website; also youtube videos;</p> <p>3. Fredrick Hayek’s classic 1944 book: The Road to Serfdom.</p>