Minyanville On "The European Onion"

From: Minyanville

This morning, Messrs. Barroso, Van Rompuy, Draghi, and Juncker presented a plan for rescuing the eurozone that included creating a closer fiscal and banking union that would, to quote the Telegraph, “turn Brussels into a finance ministry for all eurozone members.”

Put simply, that dog don’t hunt. Or, maybe more appropriately for the eurozone at the moment, that salmon don’t spawn.

I offer the latter analogy given the “upstream battle” I am afraid European leaders now face in proposing a plan that clearly goes against the tide of mounting nationalism across the continent.  What European leaders have repeatedly failed to appreciate with their offerings of one grand solution after another is that, as social mood deteriorates, local priorities take clear precedence over national/regional objectives.  (And one need only look at the stock charts of the DAX (^GDAXI), CAC (^FCHI), IBEX (^IBEX), and Athens Stock Exchange (ATG) to see just how low mood has fallen.)