European Union finance ministers pledged to stiffen sanctions on high-deficit countries and ruled out setting up a mechanism to manage state defaults, saying no euro country will be allowed to renege on its debts.
This is a healthy step towards a true United States of Europe. I have no idea whether it will work, as it does not come with an enforcement mechanism. If the EU falls apart, our rulers will need another 20 years or so to erect a replacement.
I'm agnostic on the question of whether the world needs a formal global command structure to manage its political and economic affairs. The system we've had for the past three centuries or so seems to work just fine, with aristocratic houses (Rothschild, et al.) working covertly for stability, fun, and profit. Carroll Quigley anticipated an endgame in his opus Tragedy and Hope as the problems of a technologically complex Western Civilization grew too intractable for anything but a formal governance structure to handle. The trouble with a formal structure is that those who haven't yet bought in to the concept - primarily nationalist politicians - will foul things up if they don't go along with the program.
