Terrorism, 9-11 and the official story

E.U.(european union) was formed between france,germany,italy, and the netherlands to try and make them a single industrial power. the main reason this was pushed was to stim germanys ability to stock pile resources and prepare/start any other war. the primary legal language of the e.u. is frech.

ive been to many of the countrys of the e.u.(after the invasion of iraq) and didnt run into any anti-americans.the people i met didnt love america nad they didnt hate america, many were more or less indiffrent.

 

ok ok funny liberal joke but i got a better one.

George W Bush is attending his daily briefing in the Oval Office when, after sitting impassively through a lengthy discourse on the situation in New Orleans, an official tells him that 3 Brazillian soldiers were killed in an accident,
"Oh no, that's terrible!"
exclaims the President, and then after a very long pause,
"Wait a minute, how many's in a Brazillion?"

 

Lol... how true.

 

Oh Yeah!

What's every republican's ambition in life?
To be like Vanna White & learn the alphabet.

What are the worst 6 years in a republican's life?
Third grade

This is not the joke thread. I provided one for you now go!

 

You know.. my mother is a republican... she flunked third grade and loves "Wheel of Fortune"..

 

Wrong. I will stay out of your US internal debates, but that second sentence above is a plain misinformation. While the EU was founded in 1992 (Maastricht Treaty), it is based on the European Communities that have been in existence for about 50 years. Both the EC Treaty and the EU Treaty still apply today. Even the currency union goes back to the 1970 Werner Plan ...

Of course there was and is economic competition. But I don't quite understand why anybody would have a problem with that.

Christian

 

First, I don't remember ask your permission to post in this thread!

Second, just who the H___ do you think you are any way?
A liberal democrat, giving favors away?

 

"Of course there was and is economic competition" Chrisild.

Which is my point which is really not my point but a reflection of what has been written and discussed about the coming of the European Union in various financial newspapers/shows over the course of time.

Summary of that old thought line: China is developing into an economic giant. The United States is an economic giant. If the european nations are going to compete then they are going to have to form there own trade block or union.

Now I am sure there were other factors in play as well for something as big as an
European Union.

 

Just for information's sake here are how various European markets are doing year to date:
London (FTSE) up 7.3%
PARIS (CAC) UP 14.5% !!
Frankfurt (DAX) up 13.9
for comparison here we are.
USA (S&P500) down 1.3
USA (Wilshire5000) down 0.4
Looks like EU is on a roll.

 

The political ambitions of the European Union are in a limbo, I think, and may even be buried in a few years. That would be pretty much the contrary of what I want, but may be welcomed on your side of the Pond. In most economic regards, however, the EU is one market. (Which is also why the European Union has various national seats in the UN Security Council, for example, but is one single entity as far as the WTO is concerned.) And yes, the US and China, and also countries such as India, may well be "bigger" economies than the EU in the future ...

@rambozo: The primary language in the EU (among the 20 official languages it has ) is English, I think. But French is also important since it is spoken in Brussels - the capital of the European Union, so to say - quite a lot.

Christian

 

Chrisild, I see no reason why you should not feel welcomed to join our internal political debated. I am sure your views would differ from mine but lets face it, what the United
States does or doesn't do does have an effect on the world.

 

In case you did not notice the above numbers I will offer some analysis: EUROPE IS KICKING TAIL, ESPECIALLY FRANCE.

 

Buddy, have you been to Europe. We have a much higher standard of living.
In terms of Air Conditioning, Cars, Clothes, Big Refigerators with ice, Large Homes, amount of food to choose from that is affordable, etc.....

Never mind that most of Europe has a declining white population for they are not having kids. Why. Socialism equaling me, me, me. Maybe. Life style not being able to support more then one kid, maybe. But they are not having kids.

And kids are wealth as well.

 

Why are EU countries markets reflecting so much growth while ours are are performing so poorly?
Dould it be that Eurpoean businesses are not burdened with quite as high level of incompetentance in their governments?
Any ideas why the French market is up more than 14% YTD while we are below zero.

 

That can certainly not be the reason. Trust me, I'm in Germany, and we do have our fair share of guv'ment jerks ... And stock quotes or exchange rates going up or down do not nessarily reflect how "healthy" an economy is.

One problem with talking about "Europe" is that the term is so broad. It covers quite a few areas where the standard of living is certainly not lower than in most of the US (even though we do not waste as much energy), but there are also countries or areas where most people are poor or have a very low income by our Western European standards.

As for France, I have mixed feelings. Its government surely cooperated better with ours (DE) in recent times when the US administration focused on humiliating any government that did not adhere to the "we command, you follow" line. On the other hand, the French government is also quite protectionist when it comes to the "national" economy, be it major companies, be it agriculture ...

Christian

 

Depends on the country, but is certainly true for some (like DE). Well, that would not be a major problem if we did not have such a "back and forth" immigration policy.

As for dealing with US internal debates, well, we all are here primarily for the coins, I think But when there is a discussion about non-numismatic issues that I am familiar with - which will usually be "European" rather than "American" issues - , I may well contribute ...

Christian

 

Christian,
Well looking forward to any of your posts for even if I have firm standing on issues,
I am always open to hear others and think about what they think.

Danr,

I think that you might also be overlooking at the ton of money in the past 5 to 6 years that has gone over into real estate. I saw a mark movement of cash with the RET's around 10 years ago and the individual investing has really been driving that market as of late. People are buying to flip and to rent as well as to hold and then sell.

There is only so much cash to move around and the cash is not always moving in published index's.

 

Andy's right about the non-indexed money. hundreds of millions of drug money are coming in US and being spent without the s&p knowing. drug money is everywhere.

 

Andy you can't really attribute the weak market to real estate. Builders and building suppliers participate in the market as do REITs. Home builders are one of the few strong sectors. The market discounts many factors and (as with oil) this unstable gov't really hurts. By the way individual investors are still small potatos the big boys are pension funds, institutional buyers, mutual funds and the like.

 

The dow is over 10,000 isn't it. It was not that long ago it was in the 3,000 range or 5,000 range. From the very begining of the great take off most people felt that 10,000 was the magic number for the dow.

As for individual investors being small potatoes, try buying a house in Califorina, Florida or a condo in Manhattan today as three examples of the power of individual investors who may be Americans, Europeans or as julzbio666 pointed out drug money, which is a very large part of the worlds economy.