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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 26, 2007 / 7 Nissan, 5767

Happy Birthday, EU! (But forget the party)

By Niall Ferguson


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last week, I went to Paris for lunch. I took the Eurostar. I paid with my Societ- G-n-rale credit card. I bought my Metro ticket with euros. In making my travel plans — train not plane, Metro not taxi — I was mindful of the European Union's new commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In the restaurant, my French was rather rusty, but the waiters were happy to speak in English. They were probably Polish anyway.

So you can understand why (especially after three delicious courses and half a bottle of Bordeaux) I felt ready to toast the Treaty of Rome, the founding charter of the present-day European Union, which was signed 50 years ago today.

Who could possibly wish to return Europe to its pre-1957 state of fragmentation? Twice in the last half a century the Continent had torn itself apart. When peace finally came in 1945, whole cities lay in ruins. People were starving. Currencies were reduced to worthless paper.

So totally has life in Europe been transformed since then that you might expect the European Union to be universally adored at 50. Yet that is not the case. Only 46% of European Union citizens have a positive view of the EU, while more than a third believe their country has not benefited from EU membership. Support for the EU is lowest in Britain, where just 1 in 3 people regards EU membership in a positive light.

Does this merely illustrate the truth of the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished? Or are Europeans right to be somewhat Euro-skeptical?

Take the issue of the avoidance of war. The truth is that the EU has not been the principal guarantor of Europe's peace. Rather, it was the American-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization that (in the famous phrase of NATO's first secretary-general) kept "the Soviets out, the Americans in and the Germans down."

What about the claim that the European Union has generated the Continent's present prosperity? This is certainly not to be underestimated. True, in terms of raw output per capita, the United States is still ahead, but by a range of other measures it is Europeans who are better off. Whereas the average American worked about 1,800 hours in 2005, the average Austrian, Dane, Dutchman, Frenchman or German worked fewer than 1,500 hours.

At least six EU countries have higher productivity (measured by gross domestic product per hour worked) than the United States. Europe is also fairer: Income inequality is greater in the U.S. than in any EU country.

And Europe is healthier too. According to recent research, Europeans are living as much as 15 months longer than Americans. There is even evidence that they are growing taller too. Whereas the average American 60-year-old is about an inch taller than his or her German counterpart, among 20-year-olds it's the other way round.

Yet Europeans are probably right not to give the EU much of the credit for their high standard of living. One of the paradoxes of European integration has been that, even as the EU has expanded its range of responsibilities, so too have national governments. Government expenditure today is a much larger share of gross domestic product than it was in 1957.

Indeed, it is hard to find a clear "EU effect" on economic growth. Between 1973 and 1998, for example, non-members did just as well as new members and better than founding members. Growth after 1957 was determined more by national policies and by global economic conditions than by European integration.

As we mark the EU's 50th birthday, then, let's remember what the Treaty of Rome actually did. It committed six countries to create a customs union (with a single external tariff and gradually reduced internal trade barriers) and common policies for agriculture, transport and social policy. That was all.

Much has happened since those days, of course. The six have become 27. Thirteen of them now share their own currency. European law now reigns supreme. And the customs union has become a (still imperfect) single market. Yet, at root, the EU remains not the federal super-state of conservative nightmares but a confederation whose primary concern is trade policy.

The deal reached with the U.S. last week on transatlantic air routes is far from perfect, but it is a great deal better than any individual European state could have hoped to achieve by negotiating solo.


The real reason that the EU is unloved is the often glaring discrepancy between its aspirations and this somewhat prosaic reality. And yet Europe's leaders persistently refuse to see this. No sooner have they quietly acknowledged that they have no chance of making Europe "the most competitive and the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010 — the goal set at Lisbon in 2000 — than they embark on an equally unrealistic plan for a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.

Am I the only person in Europe wondering how cheaper transatlantic air fares are going to help achieve this? Oh, what the hell. The next time I want lunch in Paris, perhaps JetBlue will be flying a shuttle.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


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Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University. He is the author of "Empire" (Basic Books, 2003) and "Colossus" (Penguin, 2004). Comment by clicking here.


03/19/07: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed claims Washington as a hero, and the U.S. tortures — such is the “osmosis of war”
03/07/07: Colonialism didn't cause Africa's problems, and aid alone won't fix them
02/27/07: Provoking dislike throughout the world is part of being an empire
02/21/07: Obama's muddled stance on foreign intervention
02/06/07: Britain's American revolution
01/30/07: Independence isn't always beautiful
01/09/07: The new world order looks terribly familiar
12/16/06: The new world order looks terribly familiar
12/13/06: Baker-Hamilton's fine print: Stay in Iraq
12/05/06: The surrealism of Iraq
11/29/06: Some civil wars never end
11/20/06: Will GOP get last laugh?
10/25/06: America's brittle empire
10/17/06: Failing to stop North Korea from going nuclear may have been the last straw for the onetime guardian of world order
10/03/06: Why Churchill opposed torture
09/27/06: Insanity on a Global Scale
09/19/06: The GOP will hang on
09/13/06: Long Live Royal Bloodlines!
09/05/06: Red-state Republicans and blue-faced liberals are starting to agree: Green is the way
08/29/06: What if the London Bombers Succeeded?
08/15/06: Testing the Limits of the U.N.: Who seriously expects Kofi Annan to stop Al Qaeda terror attacks?
08/08/06: The coming tsunami of trash
07/18/06: Forget the '60s and ‘Make Love, Not War.’ Today's world is facing a Summer of Rage
07/11/06: When will China pull the plug on North Korea?
06/20/06: Hedge funds vs. central bankers: Will inflation, deflation or recession win in the coming months?
06/13/06: Britain's economy is just like America's — minus the entrepreneurs and growth
06/06/06: The X-Men have taken over Washington
05/30/06: Quit protesting, profs!
05/23/06: World markets' wild ride: Economic volatility is back with a vengeance
05/16/06: The Cold Wars are coming
05/09/06: Many commentators are missing dangerous political shift
05/02/06: Put some sugar in your tank
04/25/06: Hu and the dog that didn't bark
04/18/06: Should Americans be less optimistic?
04/11/06: Globalization's second death?
04/04/06: So many ‘special’ friends
03/28/06: Let's get it right about what has gone wrong
03/21/06: Congress is trying to give the world a globotomy
03/14/06: Lame ducks can still bite back
03/07/06: A 19th Century critique of a 21st Century president
02/28/06: The crash of civilizations
02/21/06: Not the president, but close
02/14/06: Want historic trouble? Look south
02/07/06: Greenspan advising Britain? It's housing bubbles, deficits and potential meltdowns all over again
01/31/06: Missing the Cold War
01/24/06: It's a sick, Thick World
01/17/06: Tomorrow's world war today
01/03/06: Scotland, it's over, but keep the accents
12/20/05: History, democracy and Iraq
12/20/05: History, democracy and Iraq
11/22/05: Ghost of Napoleon haunts Tony Blair
11/22/05: Can it happen in Britain too?
11/15/05: Red plus blue equals purple
11/10/05: The fires of disintegration
11/01/05: Triumph of an über-wonk

© 2006, Los Angeles Times Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate

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