Portugal and EU loans

I run through the paper briefly in the morning. There was an article about Portugal. The government there is reluctant – to say the least – to take the EU loan to save it from its perceived misery. I haven’t the motivation and the time to follow up on it, I rather blog than read today but nevertheless those couple of lines got me thinking.

Last year, or was it already the year before when Greece fell in? There was rumours in the papers of some mysterious attack on the Euro as a currency and gloom and doom that the EU project shall fail and blahblahblah.

Should there have been some conspiracy on the Euro that would have probably a single and well known purpose and that is to maintain the dollar’s hegemony for the dollar’s hegemony is what maintains the US’s hegemony. So long as we all trade in that currency, especially the important stuff and especially the most important stuff (oil) no country has any alternative but to keep it’s savings and consequently its investments in US dollars. Thus, the world finances the US economy.

For some time there has been wondering about the potential of another currency, such as the Euro to challenge this status quo. Imagine if that happened! When repaying US debt wouldn’t just mean printing more money. Anyway, in Capitalism there are periodic crisees and whatever way they happen, either brought on by purpose or by ‘accident’ there are some who will move in to reap some benefits, hence Portugal must take EU loans.

Similiarily to Greece, Hungary and a bunch of others, hopefully the more the merrier. The more countries in the EU borrow from the EU and the more money they borrow the less sense the idea of pooled sovereignty start to make. Supposedly in the EU the states are more or less on equal terms. But what if half them owes money, a lot of it to the other half? Or even better this is administered by some central body that is intrigued, not only intrigued but created and run by fundamentalist of Thatcherite ideologies? Well, empire building at its most contemporary design. when those not wanting to fall in line are faced with the prospects of such behaviour making their loans increasingly expensive, they will learn the ‘common’ songs to sing, and do what they are told from Brussels.

And now I sound like a classic euro sceptic. But I am not. I am all for the good stuff but we shall not mix European integration with empire building. There is a clear difference.

And maybe I am running too far on a couple of lines. Maybe Portugal is really desperately needing this loan only if its government wasn’t packed by idiots... but I suspect it isn’t in hungary only that once again we need to learn to read between the lines.