EU under pressure

Bill sent me this link to an article detailing how the EU member states have gone their own ways under pressure of the financial crisis. On the one hand, this development reveals the lack of real unity within the EU, disarray already in evidence from the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty to the crisis in the Caucasus. On the other hand, as the article notes: "Without a unionwide banking regulatory system or fiscal policy, any reaction to the crisis was inevitably going to be national in character."

One interesting thing to watch will be the euro-dollar exchange rate. It's been extremely unfavorable toward the dollar for an extended period; with the financial crisis, the euro has weakened. This is probably just a short term response, but time will tell.