>>>The Euro is in trouble, no? I think it has sank more than 10% versus the
>>>dollar since its creation. Some of the reasons for this sagging I've read in
>>>the press are the "concessions" made to the Italians on budgetary matters
>>>and the failure of the ECB to find a single voice.
>>Those are as good reasons as any. Those, plus the economic weakness of the
>>EU relative to the US.
>>>I don't know about there
>>>being no coincidence with the war and the Euro. I think its more about
>>>"maintaining the credibility of NATO," even thought the U.S. military
>>>doesn't seem to have its heart in this one.
>>These aren't mutually exclusive reasons. The US no doubt sees a threat in
>>the general project of European unification, despite the neonatal weakness
>>of the currency. Perhaps scarier than the euro's rivalry to the US$ (ah,
>>hegemony - the $ is an ASCII symbol and the ¤ isn't, nor is the ¥) is the
>>potential for a European military capacity independent of NATO. As Gowan
>>said:
>>"A NATO 'victory' in this war could promote the Clinton administration's
>>central objective in waging the war: the winning over of Western Europe's
>>political systems to us leadership of the new, aggressive NATO. After all,
>>the political elites of all the main parties of Western Europe now find
>>themselves justifying, day-in and day-out the vital necessity and enormous
>>human value of the new NATO: Western Europe is being won to the idea that
>>attacking damaged sovereign states is legitimate; shattering their military
>>forces, infrastructures and economies is permissible; ignoring the UN
>>Charter and the checks built into the UN Security Council structure is
>>unavoidable; marginalizing and excluding a currently weak Russia is
>>necessary; humiliating and ignoring the interests of the largest nation in
>>former Yugoslavia, the Serbs, is vital. And we Europeans could never have
>>achieved all these things without the generous leadership of the United
>>States."
>>>And as far as U.S. imperialism,
>>>Treasury Secretary Summers (bleck) and Greenspan are against dollarization
>>>for Latin America.
>>I think they don't want the implied liability of having to bail out a
>>dollarized Latin American financial system.
>>Doug