Field Excursion #9: The JSPB Boys and Girls are brought in to solve Europe’s Problems

          This week the gang and I had the privilege to sit down with Mr. Andras Bath, a prominent member of the European Commission. Mr. Bath was born and raised in Hungary, and now works in Brussels at the EU’s headquarters. Out of all of the guest lecturers we have met with this semester, I felt Mr. Bath was the best one. He was charismatic, amiable, intelligent, and most importantly genuine. Mr. Bath did not shy away from the “hardball” questions that the JSBP kids are known for, and he answered all of our questions with an honesty that one seldom sees from a high-ranking person talking to a group of twenty-something’s. One of the reasons I think this may be is because he was a bald man, and as Larry David would say, “Bald men are just more trustworthy”. On the other hand I think he was just a good guy who wanted to help us better understand what is going on in Europe; and he realized the best way to do so was to spell out the EU’s strengths and weaknesses as accurately and thoughtfully as possible.

              I wanted to put a video clip of Larry David, but I couldn't find any that weren't vulgar.

                                                        This will have to do.                    

         

           During the first part of the lecture Mr. Bath explained to us what exactly the EU is and why it was formed in the first place. It is similar to the UN in the sense that it is one organized body made up of many “member states” that have power within the organization based on size and economic power. However, it is different from the UN because all the countries involved are closely connected socially, politically, and (perhaps most importantly) economically. He explained about the desire in Europe throughout the twentieth century to create a common ground for all the countries to work together to make Europe as prosperous as possible. One point that he made which I found particularly interesting and had not heard before was the fact that since the creation of the EU there has been no wars between member states. This is extremely noteworthy because of the history of violent conflict in Europe that dates back centuries. On a global scale the EU gives Europe a chance to compete economically, which none of the member states could do on their own because of their small size. Together, they make a big enough economy to compete on a world scale. This seems like a nice idea in principle, but as Mr. Bath soon explained things there are some extreme flaws in the economic makeup of the EU.

      

                  This is a map of the EU and its member states with their respective flags.

           The talk with Mr. Bath couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. One cannot turn on the news right now without being bombarded by a plethora of stories about the EU-euro crisis and Greece’s glaring economic woes. President Obama is currently at the G-20 summit in France trying to help “save” Europe, and the whole world’s attention is focused on the continent that we currently call home. As I said earlier Mr. Bath is employed in an organization that is part of the EU, and he stressed its importance in certain realms throughout his talk. Yet what surprised me was that he was more than willing to be critical of the economic policies of the EU that have lead to this disaster. He explained to us that one of the biggest problems the EU has had is that there is no strong federal regulating body to oversee (and punish if necessary) the ins and outs of every member state’s economies. The United States is similar to the EU in the sense it is large and full of extremely diverse geographic and economic regions. However, the difference is that the US federal government has the power to regulate industry, trade, commerce, taxes and many other economic tools in order to make sure the discrepancies between states does not become so bad it can bring the entire country’s economy to a halt (ex.-Greece).  This is not to say that the US doesn’t have its own (glaring) economic problems, but rather that it does have ways to regulate the economy from a federal level.

            Future US President Rick Perry hates the federal government and its regulatory policies, but he should realize there are good reasons to have a strong federal body to regulate commerce. He should also realize that one shouldn't insult something that they are campaigning to be the head of.

     


            Since the EU does not have the proper oversight institutions in place, they were in many ways doomed from the start. Mr. Bath claimed that part of the reason Greece is in such shambles is because they sent in false documents and numbers in order to gain acceptance in the EU. He claimed they were not strong enough to be emitted into the EU to begin with, and therefore the mess we see today was a ticking time bomb. The easy thing to do would be to put the blame soley on the Greeks (although I do agree they are largely to blame), but we must give the EU some blame for not being strong enough to catch their bluff! If the EU had any competent oversight agency they would have been able to look at Greece’s numbers and saw the discrepancies between the truth and what the Greeks reported. Instead the EU essentially “took Greece’s word” and just assumed that all countries are good and honest and would never embellish the truth to gain entry into their Union (somewhat idiotic if you ask me). Mr. Bath pointed out that one of the reasons this happened was that the Euro zone idea was created too quickly and essentially rushed into existence. The EU was so eager to create the inter-continental currency that they put forth a product that still had a lot of kinks in it. Obviously economies are complex and difficult to predict, but a little more time and foresight may have prevented the mess we see before us today.

                  While people are blaming Greece for all the world's problems, they seem to forget the many Greeks that have made the world a better place. Imagine a world without Socrates? How about one without 14-time major champion Pete Sampras? How about one without Yanni, who is essentially the Elvis Presley of our generation? And who doesn't love Jennifer Aniston and my namesake, Alexander the Great?