European Economic Power: A Hollow Joke

European Economic Power: A Hollow Joke
By Daniel G. Jennings
Lately there has been a torrent of silly hype about the potential economic, technological and industrial might of United Europe. This is hogwash, the European Union will not be an economic giant, it’ll be an economic basket case unable to compete with the US, India or China.
Europe worshippers point to the new A380 Air Bus super jumbo jet as a symbol of European economic, technological and industrial potential. This is new airliner is not progress, it is simply bigger than other airliners. The A380 isn’t faster, more efficient, more versatile or safer it’s simply bigger. European engineers unable to deliver a real technological advance did what bureaucrats always do when they can’t deliver real progress they build something bigger. Just like the Communist bureaucrats of the old Soviet Union, when they couldn’t build better jets, tanks, or submarines than the USA they built bigger ones.
Now Air Bus is building an airliner so big that it can’t land at most airports. The A380 is introduced at a time when rising fuel costs are forcing many airlines out of business. Air Bus is like the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II which built the two biggest battleships ever built, Yamato and Masogi. Even though they were the largest and most powerful battleships on Earth by the time they were built both super ships were obsolete. The Yamato was simply a big target for US Navy aircraft which sank her before she could fire a single shell at American ships.
Like the Yamato, the A380 is a giant that will never fly. It looks impressive but it will ultimately be a waste of time and money. The A380 can’t is so big it can’t land at most airports including most top destinations. Naturally, the A380 was only built with support from European governments.
The Air Bus A380 is a typical example of what we can expect from the new Europe. Gigantic industrial projects built by government owned corporations that will be of dubious utility or value. Such projects appeal to bureaucrats and politicians but they will not create real economic growth.
There is nothing in Europe like the technological innovation and entrepreneurship that gave rise to Silicon Valley, the Internet, and the computer revolution in America. Nor is Europe capable of the kind of low cost mass industrial production that makes China such a power house. Just ask yourself how many European products do you have in your house? In my house all I have from Europe is a couple of bottles of Italian wine.
The European Union won’t be an economic powerhouse it will simply be Japan Inc. writ large. Remember Japan Inc? back in the 1980s Japan’s planned economy carefully managed by bureaucrats would soon overtake the United States and dominate the world. Then Japan’s economy crashed and has kept sliding since. Japan’s real estate prices fell by 40 or 50 percent and most of Japan’s banks nearly collapsed. Japan’s economy is only propped up by massive government spending on useless construction projects.*
United Europe will end up just like Japan Inc. It’s bureaucratic planners will produce a short lived economic miracle or rather an illusion of an economic miracle. The Euro will in the short run shoot up in value to an incredibly high price. Then collapse to a level at pennies on the dollar when the sham behind it is exposed. Then when it becomes apparent that there is little or no market for things like the Air Bus, the European planned economic experiment will collapse too.
When this happens the sorry fraud known as the European Union will be exposed as the sham it is. Maybe then the Europeans will be forced to create a modern economy designed for the realities of the 21st Century.