The eurozone endangers the world, says report
In a new report “Quantifying the Unthinkable”, Dutch bank ING has calculated that any defaults within the eurozone — which are probably inevitable — will spread deflationary shocks and depression around the world. A complete disintegration of the one-size-fits-all monetary area would trigger the worst economic crisis in modern history as banks collapse under the weight of over-exposure to government debt.
Isn’t it about time Britain distanced itself from this dangerous, ramshackle organization? Whichever way the dice fall, the UK is going to lose trade.
One proposal is that Britain should rejoin EFTA, the European Free Trade Area, which Britain set up in the 1960s as a counterweight to the Common Market, as the EU was then known.
Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan recommends the move. This is how he puts it in his Telegraph blog:
“You really can have your cake and eat it. Switzerland managed to strike a deal with the EU which gave it full access market without pressing it into common political structures. The Swiss export more than twice as much per capita to the EU as the British do. Yet they control their own trade policy, foreign policy, borders, home affairs and employment law. Being outside the EU, they are free to disperse power through cantonalism, referendums and competing tax jurisdictions. Result? They are the wealthiest people in Europe.
“Do we really imagine than 60 million Britons couldn’t negotiate at least as favourable a deal as seven million Swiss? We are, after all, a larger market for EU exporters. We are an existing member state, with commensurate leverage. And, of course, we buy far more from the rest of the EU than we sell to it. It isn’t normal, in any transaction, for the salesman to have the upper hand over the customer.”
Better at arm’s length than in the thick of it.
