People are clueless about economics, so such polls are irrelevant. It can still have been a bad deal, of course, who knows, given the specifics of trade deals with Trump are ever changing.
Ultimately it just reflects the EU's largely self-inflicted economic weakness.
I don’t believe it. Part of the deal is that EU has to buy certain amounts of LNG and weapons from the US. That sounds like a win for the US, but the EU wanted to secure this anyway, to build up defence, send equipment to Ukraine, and reduce dependence on Russian gas.
"Benefit the US". Nonsense. Trade barriers hurt both sides. And if the US wants to lower its trade deficit and/or bring back manufacturing some things that actually make economic sense are: stop being the reserve currency of the world, raise your interest rates, and start running a government surplus instead of deficit. Ah... you notice that all of these things are the opposite of what the idiot in charge of the US is actually doing. Well, the shortened summary of the whole thing is that the US is the very curious case of a superpower attempting to become a third world country. So who is actually winning here? Well, if the rest of the world decides to start doing some more free trade, the one losing is at the least very clear.
You know, trump is all about optics. If you have no idea what is actually going on it may well look like the mascot is the most important person on the field. Trump has made it its life purpose to be a mascot. In the meantime the collapse is brewing in the back.
Whatever the economic merits and demerits of this deal, politically it's a disaster, as this article indicates. There wasn't even an attempt to sell this to the public. But as there are no elections until 2028, I expect major changes in strategy in a year or so, otherwise the center-right parties in charge now will be wiped out in favor of the anti-American factions of the far right and far left.
My suspicion is that there's a quid-pro-quo regarding Ukraine. Economically, the EU is in a strong position, but militarily, a mercurial US has the EU over the barrel due to the Ukraine war.
I predict that Europe's notoriously hard-nosed negotiators (Brexit) will ramp up the pressure as the midterms get closer and if the situation in Ukraine improves.
Europe took PTO after the wall fell, and stayed on it long enough that now a new generation has grown up thinking its the norm. Tech? We have the US's tech. Defense? We have the US's defense. Energy? We have Russia's and the US's energy
Obviously Europeans don't want to be the US's b*tch, but even more so they seem to want heavy regulations ensuring their right to relax and cripple growth, err, evil corporations.
It's simply another nail in the coffin of the narrative that the EU countries need the "EU" to survive.
The EU was sold as tool that would bring prosperity to the EU countries and this is less and less the case as the years go by. Sure, you have a few bright spots here and there but those are few and far between.
Spain, Italy, Greece and the other sick "countries" of Europe were sacrificed in the 2010s to save the Euro and now France and Germany are going through some tough soul-searching.
Then there is the the growth of many Euro septic parties throughout Europe which are gathering steam year after year.
The EU needs to reform itself very quickly because for a lot of people, the question that is being asked is: do we really need it?
They think things will go back to normal. Once/if they do, they think (probably correctly) that the "normal" rulers will reward those who deferred to the crown despite disliking the one who wore it.
That's the essence of normalcy to them. They cannot imagine any alternative to the US foreign department dictated world order - or they just don't want to imagine it.
They rose in a system where imagination in foreign policy matters -- well, if they had it, they wouldn't have risen to the top in this system. The height of irresponsibility to them is to imagine something outside the present order (such as Varoufakis making practical plans for leaving the Euro during the Greek debt crisis). The very action of imagining things threatens the stability which is the base of everything they actually value, which is little more than peer prestige and comfort for themselves.
The EU has benefitted trillions of euros over the decades by leaning on the US for defense spending and subsidizing amazing healthcare benefits for their citizens.
Their gamble did not pay off because they mis-underestimated Russia.
Now the check has come due, but it was inevitable assuming Russia was always going to do this.
Regardless, this is the result of the Russian invasion.
And we still don't even know what we paid for the COVID vaccines. They're about to roll out ChatControl with exemptions for themselves, while they're using Signal with disappearing messages despite transparency of government rules... I'm not feeling a lot of love for our leadership recently tbh.
Europeans finally understanding what imperialism feels like to the rest of the world. Perhaps we will even grow a spine or develop empathy, hopefully sooner rather than later.
17 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 43.3 ms ] threadIf the deal was the best available then its not "selling out", its being realistic.
Ultimately it just reflects the EU's largely self-inflicted economic weakness.
You know, trump is all about optics. If you have no idea what is actually going on it may well look like the mascot is the most important person on the field. Trump has made it its life purpose to be a mascot. In the meantime the collapse is brewing in the back.
My suspicion is that there's a quid-pro-quo regarding Ukraine. Economically, the EU is in a strong position, but militarily, a mercurial US has the EU over the barrel due to the Ukraine war.
I predict that Europe's notoriously hard-nosed negotiators (Brexit) will ramp up the pressure as the midterms get closer and if the situation in Ukraine improves.
Obviously Europeans don't want to be the US's b*tch, but even more so they seem to want heavy regulations ensuring their right to relax and cripple growth, err, evil corporations.
The EU was sold as tool that would bring prosperity to the EU countries and this is less and less the case as the years go by. Sure, you have a few bright spots here and there but those are few and far between.
Spain, Italy, Greece and the other sick "countries" of Europe were sacrificed in the 2010s to save the Euro and now France and Germany are going through some tough soul-searching.
Then there is the the growth of many Euro septic parties throughout Europe which are gathering steam year after year.
The EU needs to reform itself very quickly because for a lot of people, the question that is being asked is: do we really need it?
That's the essence of normalcy to them. They cannot imagine any alternative to the US foreign department dictated world order - or they just don't want to imagine it.
They rose in a system where imagination in foreign policy matters -- well, if they had it, they wouldn't have risen to the top in this system. The height of irresponsibility to them is to imagine something outside the present order (such as Varoufakis making practical plans for leaving the Euro during the Greek debt crisis). The very action of imagining things threatens the stability which is the base of everything they actually value, which is little more than peer prestige and comfort for themselves.
Their gamble did not pay off because they mis-underestimated Russia.
Now the check has come due, but it was inevitable assuming Russia was always going to do this.
Regardless, this is the result of the Russian invasion.
Still, it is the lesser of the possible evils.
Trump needs to be "managed" until Russia goes back to pretend to play nicely with the European neighborhood.
don't hold your breath. /s
We are building amoebas, with US technology made in China. We have a looong way to spines.
No.