European Central Bank to E.U. Leaders: Vision Is Needed

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, warned a committee of the E.U.'s parliament at the end of May 2012 that the structure undergirding the euro in the E.U. had become "unsustainable." He criticized political officials for having kicked the can down the road by enacting half-measures or else delaying decisions, thus making the debt crisis even worse than it otherwise would have been. "The next step is for our leaders to clarify what is the vision for a certain number of years from now."[1] Similarly, Olli Rehm, vice president of the E.U. Commission (the E.U.'s executive branch), said that ways must be found to avoid a disintegration of the common currency.

The full essay is in Essays on the E.U. Political Economy, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.

1. Jack Ewing, "A Terse Warming for Euro States: Do Something New," The New York Times, May 31, 2012.

Achieving Balance in American Federalism: On the Crusade of Texas’ Rick Perry

As the governor, or head of state, of Texas, Rick Perry has been on a crusade to reinvigorate American federalism. Referring to the efforts of officials in the U.S. Government to secure the Mexican border, Perry said, “It is part of that frustrating paradox where Washington neglects their responsibility for areas clearly within their purview, while interfering in other areas in which they’re neither welcome nor authorized.”  The chief executive was pointing to a little-noticed point concerning the expansion of the domains in which the federal government is active.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.

See Rick Perry, Fed Up! and the critique of Perry's book, Skip Worden, American and European Federalism: A Critique of Rick Perry's 'Fed Up!

The European Union: Dissolution or Consolidation?

In its 1993 Maastricht decision, the German Constitutional Court ruled that national authorities are not bound to respect and apply Community law to the extent that it exceeds the outer boundaries of Germany’s transfer of sovereignty to the E.U.  The Court also ruled that no transfer of sovereignty is valid to the extent that it results in a violation of the fundamental individual rights guaranteed in the German Constitution.  Nevertheless, a subsequent ruling on this subject indicated a willingness to rely on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for the vindication of those fundamental rights.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.