Europe and euros

I have no profound conclusions, just some observations about Europe's recent struggles in two areas: volcanoes and a common currency.

First, volcanoes: It's been interesting to see the aftereffects of the shutdown of European airspace last month. There's been a lot of finger-pointing and unhappiness with the ability of the various European governments to coordinate their responses. The European Union is a long way from being everything that its proponents hope it can become, and the trouble with the volcano really demonstrated how difficult it can be to get several countries to act quickly and effectively in the face of a crisis. Getting Germany, France, Britain, and Portugal (just to pick a few EU countries at random) to agree on something is a lot tougher than getting Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to agree. Just think of all the historical baggage, cultural differences, and conflicting economic interests between those four countries. It will be interesting to see if anything comes out of the volcano crisis.

(Side note: Irish airspace is being affected again by volcanic ash. I'm hoping that none of this gets in the way of my London trip next week.)

Now, the euro: I love the euro for its convenience as we travel around to different countries in Europe, but as the trouble with Greece is demonstrating, the countries that have adopted the euro have given up a measure of control over their own economies. Greece's troubles are dragging down every other country that uses the euro. There are some signs of an agreement among the other countries to bail out Greece, but it's shaky, and what country wants to spend money to bail out another country that didn't have its act together? I think the Swiss at this point are quite happy that they haven't joined the EU and that they haven't adopted the euro.