If the Euro and Eurozone fail...

This out today in the news: US bank warns of eurozone breakup 'pandemonium' Citigroup economist and former central banker Willem Buiter warned Thursday that a fully blown breakup of the eurozone could spell a global depression with unemployment of 20 percent and economic pandemonium. Sketching a stark picture of the stakes facing European leaders as they gather in Brussels to discuss how to save the single currency, Buiter said a breakup would unlikely be planned, orderly or gradual. Buiter, a former Bank of England policy maker, predicted in a research note that a breakup would be "disruptive, destructive and without any winners." Basically, I think this is what he has in mind: Wish us all luck, ladies and gentlemen.

France and the burqa

A French panel has just come out with the conclusion that burqas--the all-covering clothing for women of the Muslim faith--must "outlawed in public buildings such as schools and hospitals."

And this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Further, it has nothing to do with religious intolerance.

It is clearly a matter of security for the French.

Fortunately, the French government is spelling out two reasons for the ban.

"Jean-Francois Cope, leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, Sarkozy's majority party in Parliament, believes France needs a solid law against the burqa."

"'The two reasons why we have to implement legislation is to respect the rights of women and, second, it's a question of security. Who can imagine that in a country like ours, people can walk everywhere in the country and also in our cities with a burqa, without the possibility to recognize their face?' Cope says."

So they're standing up for women in this 21st Century as well as spelling out the need for security.

Good for the French.

Hopefully they're leading the way for the rest of the free, educated world.

France looks better all the time

France, Germany, French President Nikolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel all look better and smarter all the time, it seems.

They're the ones pressing the most at the G20 right now for much more regulation and restrictions in business and our ugly, out-of-control Capitalism.

Thank God.

Look where all this selfish, unregulated banking, for instance, has gotten us--all of us, worldwide. Collapsing banks. Failing insurance companies. Collapsing stock markets.

Maybe doing it all "above board" makes far more sense after all. This way the wealthy can, sure, still make money but just not fleece so many others who may or may not have that much money, all so they can be more obscenely wealthy.

They're also saying that maybe it doesn't make so much sense to throw so many more trillions of dollars at these busineses, too.

Imagine that--Socialist countries saying that maybe it doesn't make sense to soak up tax money to big institutions.

It seems backward, doesn't it?

Usually it's the free market capitalists who are saying don't throw government money at problems.

Pass those French Fries, will you?

Link to story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090402/ap_on_re_eu/g20_summit