= new reply since forum marked as read
have made 'integration' or 'reintegration' a much less daunting process than for Europe. No comparison really.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union
The European Union has 24 official and working languages. They are:
Bulgarian
French
Maltese
Croatian
German
Polish
Czech
Greek
Portuguese
Danish
Hungarian
Romanian
Dutch
Irish
Slovak
English
Italian
Slovenian
Estonian
Latvian
Spanish
Finnish
Lithuanian
Swedish
http://ec.europa.eu/languages/policy/linguistic-diversity/official-languages-eu_en.htm
Thanks for teaching me so much: the ignore button is really useful. Bye forever!
and triggered the crisis in the Eurozone.
But the structure of the Eurozone is what has trapped the smaller, southern countries while Germany prospers in spite of 2008.
Of course, Germany also will ultimately succomb, just as the 1% ultimately will succomb. They just feed off the weakest until they turn on each other. 
Iow, the Eurozone was doomed to fail from the start (just as everyone is, of course) but the '08 crisis caused it to start collapsing sooner than it otherwise might have.
Sorry, I disagree with "BigJim." And you left out "Bitchez" admission that she hates Hague because of he turned Zionist once in office. Not bothering to read the rest of the commentary, which at zerohedge tends to be drivel.
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/euronote.html
1998 THE EURO: BEWARE OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR
But how do you run a common currency without a common government?
Europe has some experience with this sort of thing. For almost two decades - since the formation of the European Monetary System in 1979 - most European nations have committed themselves to maintaining fixed exchange rates between their currencies, which basically means adopting a common monetary policy. And while there have been occasional flareups in the arrangement - a last-gasp attempt by the French to follow their own path back in 1982, and a wave of speculative attacks that pushed Britain out of the system a decade later - the EMS has proved surprisingly durable. How did Europe manage to follow a common monetary policy? The was a bit of neatly calculated hypocrisy. Athough the EMS was in principle a symmetric system, with all countries treated equally, in practice it was tacitly run as a German hegemony: the Bundesbank set interest rates as it pleased, and other central banks then did whatever was necessary to keep their currencies pegged to the Deutsche mark. This arrangement allowed the system to meet two seemingly irreconcilable demands: the insistence of Germans, who still remember both the hyperinflation of 1923 and the economic miracle that followed the introduction of a new, stable currency in 1948, that their beloved Bundesbank keep its hand firmly on the monetary tiller; and the political imperative that any European institution must look like an association of equals, not a new, um, Reich. The Europeans, they are a subtle race.
But come actual monetary union, this subtlety will no longer work, because a truly unified currency must have someone - a European Central Bank - explicitly in charge. How could this institution be set up to give each country an equal voice, yet satisfy the German demand for assured monetary rectitude?
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/euro.html
~1999/2000 THE EURO, LIVING DANGEROUSLY
The biggest real concern about EMU before it got started was the issue of one-size-fits-all monetary policy. Given the lack of significant labor mobility within Europe, "asymmetric shocks" would create strains over the appropriate level of interest rates, and - if you believe that there is significant downward price stickiness - lead to a higher average unemployment rate than if countries could pursue monetary policy tailored to their individual interests. Euro advocates claimed that asymmetric shocks would rarely be an important issue, and that anyway European countries were too closely linked to achieve significant monetary autonomy even with floating exchange rates.
The other, more contingent worry about EMU was that the new ECB would have a deflationary bias - that it would be so dedicated to building stable-price credibility, to proving itself more German than the Germans, that it would ignore concerns about growth and employment (and perhaps even flirt dangerously with a liquidity trap). Indeed.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/07/04/paul-krugman-is-right-again-its-the-euro-itself-that-is-the-problem/
Paul Krugman Is Right Again: It's The Euro Itself That Is The Problem
actually...this one deserves its own thread.
I believe the sceptics and doubters (i.e. Merkel's own party, other German Conservatives, the Finns, the Baltic States, the Netherlands, etc.) are insisting that the Greek Parliament show proof of their good faith (severely dented because of the expensive and futile referendum) before opening the cash tap.
They're asking Greece to start on Monday by passing some of the legislation required for implementation of the proposed measures.
http://www.france24.com/en/20150712-live-eurozone-leaders-meet-decide-greece-fate-bailout-debt-european-union
* The leaders of the eurozone’s 19 members have begun talks in attempt to find a solution to the Greek crisis, with Athens on the verge of bankruptcy and negotiations for a new bailout deal stalling.
* A meeting of the leaders of all 28 EU members states scheduled for this afternoon that would have dealt with the fallout of a ‘Grexit’ was cancelled at the last moment by European Council President Donald Tusk to give eurozone leaders a last chance to strike a deal.
* Eurozone finance ministers resumed talks on Sunday morning over Greece’s application for a new bailout deal – which would be its third in five years – after discussions broke down on Saturday night.
* A draft statement issued by the finance ministers called on Greece to make significant economic reforms including to pensions, the labour market and privatisation before a new bailout could be considered.
* Finnish Finance Minister Alex Stubb said the Greek government would have until Wednesday to pass the reforms.
* Greece's parliament had already backed painful austerity measures Saturday in an effort to secure a bailout but left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras facing a rebellion by some in his own party.