Three examples of EU madness

From the Open Europe news summary of March 10, 2014:

Eight leaders of the European People’s Party (EPP), including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have backed a call for students to be given a “European Union education” to tackle growing euroscepticism and “ignorance”

If you are a patriot who believes in the sovereignty of your nation and the foolishness of Euro-socialism that marches forward under the EU banner, then obviously you are ignorant and sorely in need of a good "European Union education".

 

Writing in Die Welt, Marcel Fratzscher, Head of the German Institution for Economic Research (DIW) urges the ECB to embark on a multi-billion euro bond purchase programme, buying government and private bonds in all eurozone countries (up to a value of €60bn per month), to increase monetary stimulus and temper the risks of eurozone deflation.

This is what passes for mainstream economic science today--advise your own central bank to mimic the Fed and print money in massive amounts.  After all, it has worked so well in America that the addition of trillions of dollars of monetized government debt to the Fed's balance sheet has resulted in the lowest labor participation rate in decades.

The ECB is following the Barron maxim that "an organization that can print money will print money."  It was foolish of early supporters of the ECB to think that its powers could be kept within its treaty limitations as merely the honest provider of an international currency and would not be captured by corrupt politicians and their sycophantic advisors to be used as an engine of inflation.
 

British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have pledged to work together to lead an EU internet revolution, ahead of a joint-appearance at the world’s biggest IT fair CeBIT, co-sponsored by Britain, in Hannover today. The two leaders met for a private dinner yesterday, where they discussed Anglo-German relations, the need for uniform rules in the EU’s digital industry, and the Ukraine crisis.

Pardon my skepticism, but what do David Cameron and Angela Merkel know about the internet?  Does anyone really believe that getting oneself appointed as leader of a victorious political party bestows business and scientific acumen?  Of course not!  All Cameron and Merkel can do in a positive manner is prevent their two nations from passing legislation that would in some way hinder the free market development of the internet and the various beneficial tools that have developed around it.  But when two politicians of this high rank get together, that is very unlikely to happen.  What is likely to happen is that they will try to guide future internet development into channels that benefit special interest groups.  Of course, any new regulatory framework would create governmental compliance costs that would have to be funded by taxes on the industry.  This is the ultimate goal of all regulation of any successful industry--the draining of honest profits to dishonest, politically connected parasites.  At that point the internet will cease its spectacular innovations.