*The New Europe*

Was sitting in an Irish Pub in Paris the day before I left, watching a soccer profile of an Italian player, which was dubbed in French and had Spanish subtitles, eating a German Bratwurst.

OK, now that actually happened, but take a look at that sentence… five nations mentioned in succession. This fact of life in Europe is what makes people of the U.S. seem like such international misfits…it is also what makes that European Union such a big deal. Different Nationalities, different regions, different national talents, different interests…all agreeing that, in the least, there is mutual benefit to each other’s prosperity.

I’ve watched the dollar tumble and tumble while I’ve been on this trip and it’s hard to swallow as a student traveling abroad, but – one would think – what’s good for the goose is good for the gander: That a group of countries that the U.S. are allies with would be doing well, ought to be good news for the U.S.

I don’t know if that’s the case or not, really; economics – to me, at least – seems to be on the same order as voodoo. Things happen and you do well and other things happen and you do worse…don’t expect the same results in a year or two.

…but what I do know is that the European Union, for all its faults and bureaucracy, is the combination of several advanced nations who know how to make economics work in their country and will work out how to make it work for all of them. People worry, and rightly so, that China is going to take over in the future, but what about Europe? It has a lot to worry about in the process, including loss of national identity, ethnic and religious differences, etc, etc; however, if the European Union functions as it’s supposed to, and even thrives (which it seems to be doing): there is not one country that holds the future in it’s collective hands.

Hopefully, the U.S. will get it’s act together…and both the U.S. and the E.U. will work with China, and we can all step forward into a knew world, but I’ve been known to dream before…so I guess that’s it for my little discussion on economics.