Europe on the Brink -- A WSJ Documentary 

My opinion of the existing problem is that we, citizens of the countries within the European Union don't think of ourselves as citizens of the same union. There is still hatred and enormous cultural differences even though we have been living next to each other hundreds of years. Therefore, I not only agree with that EU lacks the fiscal synchronisation but as well, it lacks the collective belief that we actually want to become a union. Hate to bring the example of USA, because what happened there about 250 years ago, happened among different circumstances with no phenomenon as financial contagion, economic globalisation and so on so forth. But what they had realised more than we had is that a fiscal, monetary and cultural union does essentially forge small states into a firm, stable economy, one of the strongest of the world. You can ask yourself the question, do you consider yourself a citizen of Germany, Portugal, Spain? Or a citizen of European Union?

My hat off to Switzerland and Norway. They have no business in any of this mess.

Sure glad Switzerland didn't join EU

Welfare states? We are Europe, not the USA. We don't let the poor, weak or ill persons back in the dust like the USA do. It's our believe, that we are stronger together. Look at your criminal rates and murder rates. We don't want this in Europe. Maybe it costs, but it is worth it. We are paying a lot taxes and insurances to finance this.

This is from the Wall Street journal... it says it all!

1. lend money to a welfare state. 2. be shocked that its a poor investment. 3. demand the German worker pay for this.

All I can say is thank god we, the UK 🇬🇧, kept our own currency and didn’t switch to the euro.

A highly-engaging exploration.

Good documentary

"Europe on the brink" a title pulled straight out of headline.

you guys forget to include the "whatever it takes" of super Mario which save the euro.

Interesting...in the context of the situation in July, 2020.

This is excellence from WSJ

Yes because if you leave the EU, the rest of the Union will be so thrilled they will be DYING to conduct business with you. To be honest British demands to leave the EU are nothing more than the age-old Empire Complex. It just burns that you are no longer a world player, but one of several players in a larger "European superpower". Populism never leads to anything good, my friend.

When a government wants a loan, it creates a bond for which there is a buyer. Any person from any country can become a lender, although in reality a majority of bond transactions originates from financial institutions such as banks, investment banks and most notably; central banks.

dont worry southern ireland has voluntered to come to the rescue !

You ARE talking about young people, which with the viscous cycle created by the European Union - simply won't make a difference. Anyone who is successful in the corrupt political system of your Union is a past loving person. Winston Churchill once said "The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see". If you can grasp that concept, you can see where "real" politicians are needed Emphasis on the "may" change, because absolutes aren't possible in this case.

The problem start with the way money is created. It's created out of debt on which one pays interest. With the result that, year after year, the debt gets bigger and bigger. The system is fundamentally floored and until that fact is properly understood and excepted then the eventual collapse inevitable. Consider if you will, the fact that the Fed and other central banks have been quantitative easing money, billions per month, QE 1, 2, 3, etc for years and yet America and most European countries are suffering austerity. Sadly the experts find this so frightening they don't want to see it.

Well it is true that Greece has very high spendings in the public sector and was able to borrow cheap with the Euro. Greece also has good social benefits provided by the government. In economics, you learn that public sector should never be larger than the private sector because the public sector is funded by taxpayers of the private sector.

The collapse of the EU would leave nations there independent again and give the voters in each the power they used to have. Nothing better could happen. There is no way those working towards a one government World would ever let this happen.

well this is wall street journal and I would wonder if you watch anything besides propaganda. us crisis is over, it has been for a while. While the rest of americans were in panic I bought every stock I could while it was low, and Now I pay for college in cash. The american loaning system worked fine except for those who abused it. Meanwhile you were watching people complain and whine about their fiscal irresponsibility, you could have made a fortune. I wonder who may be the most delusional :-/

lol !!! the european crise may infest the world??! let's not forget who started this financial meltdown in 2007

banks mostly pension funds, all the european banks have public bonds in theyre assets, 15-20% of all bank loans are to nations,germans buying spanish bonds,spanish buying german and so on,how money are created that's a diffrent thing, all money are created as debt the debt can't be paid plus intrest, so everybody needs to take more debt,sometimes people don't have trust anymore, so the future loans are no longer posible,but as well the debt can't be paid.

Thank you ever so

The EU is not a "false government". It is a supra-governmental organization that has done a lot of good for Europe. The monetary policy issues were not thought out nearly as well as they should have been and are a continuous problem. But, this is a case of struggling with bankers. And, yes, bankers are a sleazy breed of vultures who cannot easily be negotiated or asked to do things. It is the same with every economics worker.

@DanMorin007 I think they also mention a better integrated financial Europe as an outcome, which is very viable in my opinion. The stronger economic countries, like Germany, can actually start demanding better economic structures in countries like Greece. Keeping Greece her debt at a high level is no solution, because thats a downward spiral, but reducing their debt while demanding reforms in return might be a good way to strengthen EU as a whole.

ya look at Germany Europe is falling Germany is Rising

Denying reality ,does not change reality...

Very well done !

I think this is a good general education for all. Obviously, this is nothing new to people that have interest and keep themselves up to date on this issue. But for the general public, this is very, very important stuff to know. In that sense, this could've been even more tangible in approach.

I think it is one of those things that far too many are doing to little early on about. If major problems hit people will be panicking and slapping solutions together. It is not so different in that respect in Europe. But, this is very difficult to get a handle on seeing as not enough people want to talk about it without using dishonest discourse and exaggeration/hyperbole.

Loving this, people sat in their mortgage funded houses, loaned cars, public sector payroll jobs, blaming the political leaders and bankers for the financial crisis. Before you blame others, look into the dark mirror which reveals the truth about you. I'm not blaming public directly, and I'm not in favour of corruption of the political leaders... but I'm saying it's necessary not to blame the easiest target.

The biggest catastrophe is the worldwide recession. Europe a huge major player in the world’s economy has dozens of countries that are part of the EU. With the euro going down the world’s economy has suffered the brink of depression. It is the best interest for the world’s leaders to come with a plan to stop this event that may unfold into an all out chaos.

It's stupid that you simply call a whole country stupid.

coming from the US, this documentary just sounds like a huge insult

Dear mister ASelfGnosis, it seems you know a lot more than i do. Please inform me also, please tell me where should I go for the whole story?

... and it ends with the welfare state, of all things, being the main problem?! Not irresponsible bank lending and deregulated financial markets? LOL!

@MrBravefencermusashi the FED will probably print polymer banknotes not worth the ink and plastic they are printed on.

The problem in Europe is that the greek politicians lied and borrowed money they never could pay back, now this exact fear is spreading to other european countries. I live in Belgium, and our state debt is also out of control, if the crisis doesn't get resolved soon we'll be next on the list. If the eurozone is going down i'm moving to germany, dutch and german are very similar, and if there's one thing that history tells us is that germany always comes out back on top in europe.

In “Occupying Chairlifts” a simple rule tweak on inheritance ends up changing the direction and purpose of modern human life! Here’s a fair way to transition forward to where we’re rewarded for cooperating and creating instead of competing and conquering. It's something specific we can demand. If this isnt the best answer, at least we’re thinking about what might be. Are we really just this close to having it work right? Oh yeah, it's a Ski movie! “Occupying Chairlifts” on RU-vid!

Are you serious? Gold and silver? There are some extremely good reasons why the world moved to fiat currencies...

It seems like there is two kinds of people. One is and lives on this planet and the other does not, it lives in a dream like thing.

well done thanks

Well, I couldn't agree more with what this video said. This video is composed of snippets from some smart people. I prepared a 5 video series (about 6 minutes/video) on the Euro Crisis and how they can solve it. You can look at it by going to: Euro Crisis Video 1 Depression

There is no need for grand philosophy or "deep" analysis here - Greece, Spain, and Ireland - have lived the dolce vita like never before. Greeks regularly spent 100 Euros a night in a restaurant, government employees made 5-6 thousand Euros a month, Spanish workers with a high school degree took out quarter-million Euro loans for an apartment, in Ireland everybody had a Polish nanny or butler - there's your answer for the crisis. Just simply eject the PIIG-states from the Eurozone and thats it.

London that is going thru a deep recession, worst than Italy, despite its very laudable market fundamentalism

six word "the UK need to leave europe", its simple, the common fact that most countries are in crisis right now, they need business, so if the uk leaves we can help ourselves then strengthen our currency to help others while keeping strong links to import and export goods

The US is as much to blame as Europe.

Europe need to act as a single country with provences or states and rewrite its moral obligations to restore confidence and because of that it a grim outlook

Also a lot of nonsense about 'countries like Greece.' Apparently Spain has huge government debt and expensive welfare state! No it hasn't its purely a private sector property bubble crisis.

What has been done in 3 years? Exactly.

we should make "economic quarantine zone" in order prevent global crisis in all aspect. crisis lead to chaos, chaos will resolve to war, world war.

Propaganda or not. Switzerland has been preparing and equipping their army concerning the euro crisis and the fall of Europe. And that is a sign of something?? which is worrying and alarming. Is a third world war heading for us?

'Currency Wars'- Rickards /previous trader in mkt book-interesting- about IMF with SDRs being World Ct bank, bank of G20

SO why don't the people of Greece actually try to explain what happened?

Agreed... I don't need a politician to tell me how to take care of my finances, when they are the ones allowing the Central Banks to purposely take risky options.

Wasn't that the Euro that would take over the US $ Dollar as world currency?

well, apparently the wall street journal is proficient in hindsight.

I do not think the EU is such a bad keeper and promoter of justice. They made all of their member states sign human rights treaties and a grand human rights convention that some say was excruciatingly extensive. It literally extended the idea of human rights in international law to including things like accessible (which can mean free if the patient has not money) health care and education. They are not so bad. Europe by and large wants peace and not micro-control of its constituent parts.

Propaganda is right. 06:40, this guy asks how Greece was able to lie about its finances. This coming from Wall Street. You've got to laugh. Why doesn't he walk over to his buddies at Goldman Sachs so he can learn how they were in Greece ten years ago, cooking their books to get them into the Euro zone. The scariest thing is, we haven't seen the end of it yet. Who else did Goldman Sachs 'advise'?

At 22:00 that is just a load of bull. There is no 'European welfare state', welfare states are structured very differently across countries. Also, the way in which she is implying that generous welfare states cause these deficits is just wrong; the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries have very generous welfare states, and are outperforming her glorified 'entrepreneurial' US system on all indicators. Greece and Portugal don't even have generous welfare states, it's completely unrelated.

Galloni's description of Berlusconi sums up the irrelevance of this item , the definition of a victim applies to many Europeans, not to Berlusconi. Justifications of the impending financial apocalyps, invented by the lowest of scroungers on the sinking boat that is the EU economy.

the e.u appears to be heading down the can !

btw. this is a part british report.

@LooksAeterna Can you get to you point? What is your version of the events?

End of 2014 and EU is still here. The only major problem is that a war in going in the Ukraine

after some thinking, might be too late

I read your comment and immediately knew if I watched this now it would be 23 minutes of my life wasted! Thanks friend - closing the tab now :)

where did I say anything about deregulation?

Los USA tienen 16,8 billones de deuda pública mucho mayor que su PIB, no tiene ningún sector industrial competitivo, su balanza de pagos es fuertemente deficitaria, es decir el resto del mundo les presta cada año mas de 100.000 millones de dólares..... es un cáncer que los demás llevamos sin quejarnos.... hasta cuando???

Tha outlook for the European project and hence the € are awful for ordinary citizens trapped in what is demonstrably a failed system. The likes of Junker and his types are in denial and need urgently to accept reform or run the risk of a huge European backlash. The UK is the start, Italy will likely follow and then the Dutch and French. I would add that Germany has risks too! A worrying world indeed!

At least they produce goods, services and ultimatly jobs. A welfare mother produces more crappy kids that working people are taxed to feed. In my opinion the lesser of the two evils is corporate welfare

That Galloni woman hit the nail on the head. Clear headed wow she said the kink is naaked. Wish I could shake her hand.

The Euro has created such a welfare-nanny state which has created such a large class dependent on the gov't are most/all of their income. This is exactly what is happening here in the US. When the gov't takes $ away from the many who have grown accustomed to it riots occur. Gov't needs to distinguish between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. The deserving poor are poor due to MANY poor decisions they have made in their lives (not a bad stock trade).

@MrBravefencermusashi Tell us more about what you see as the US involvement in the creation of the European Union.

But deregulation is part of what "FREE" trade is. Thanks to Adam Smith.

If you shake hands with a greek, count your fingers afterwards- Albanian Proverb.

Over here there is a sense of fatigue for war and all of the power games. And OF COURSE they still go on. But, the power games that led to all of the wars for over the past thousand years on our continent have pushed most people over the edge to where they cannot stomach the desire for standard nationalism with its petty squabbling and the fighting that goes along with it. There are still a lot of crooks and liars. But, when you live here you get a strong sense that people really want to

I make bread and I sell you a loaf. You make butter and you sell me a cup. Our economies are good. I make bread and sell 2 loaves to the banker. You make butter and sell 2 cups to the banker. I buy one cup of butter + interest from banker. You buy 1 loaf + interest from banker. Our economies are half as good because of interest.

Nobody knows what the fuck is going on.

I do see your perspective of a social-democratic form of government, which I wish the United States was somewhat more of but it is not. But London deregulation have generated so much wealth for the country. Greed creates mammoth wealth but also destroys everything if the bubble burst. So there will always be a financial crisis in a capitalist economy, but capitalism is still the best form of economic system that propels society forward.

i agree investors knew from 2007 that greece is bamkrupt but they chose to lend greeks at 6-7% intrest rates than us germany and so on at 2%, those people shouldn't get any money,a bet that europeans wouldn't let greece fail,but forget greece all europe is bankrupt including germany,we no longer have a market economy is socialism the state controlls 50% of the economy,europe needs to default on it's debt get back to capitalism and 15-20% gdp public budget.

Well babysitting Europe is expensive,and we the USA also have the worlds largest economy...

74 Europeans disliked this video.

True.

in a realpolitik that shadows the ideals of political theorists and dreamers. It is not unlike locking a few people in a room until they get along together. Their are initial adjustment periods in which their can be turbulence. But, eventually the individuals give up their difference and accept that they will have to get along and work together to get beyond where they are. Humanity is too selfish to be coerced by any other means to function outside of an attempt to completely eliminate

Like our EU-Commission said today, one you're part of the euro zone, you can't get kicked out. >>> Greece will stay in the euro zone even with another government

Not forgetting that the US military budget is the biggest deficit spending welfare project in the world.

EU is the same as USSR bourecrates rule,its made for multinationals, why have 27 sales men to sell to the people what multinationals want, when you could have a bourecrat to pass the law and sell to everyone? look at carbon caputure and storage, look at biofuels, look at stupid regulations like polution norms esp on all cars, streesed chickens that's my favorite last year my country didn;t have eggs anymore because a bourecrat said that stressed chickens have bad eggs and we can't eat that:))

EU 🇪🇺💪💪💪

The doomsday music is obnoxious.

Funny to see both top comments disagree. I side with the Danmorin007.... the other guy clearly has no clue.

"A Financial Virus", is an astute analogy to use.

move on in history and leave the wars and imperialism as entries in history texts.

Now I see why Gerald Calente calls the WSJ a rag......

And it is this smoldering that is now witness to the events in Europe wherein Germany and France are each in turn posturing, striving for supremacy in the European Union each desirous of being the new leader of such an alliance. Both Germany and France are eager to show that they can be independent from Washington and in so doing attempt to outdo one another in the fight for dominance within the EU. It is time to close the book on the European Union and view it for what it was. (Continued)

And you are? 12 years old?

Christ... the level of ignorance on RU-vid is absolutely beyond reckoning...

pro-NWO?

@Caelistas (politely) just asking: 1 what do you think is the chance (zero % to 100%) of the Flemings & the Walloons splitting the country in the next quarter century. 2. What is the chance of a Muslim takeover/or civil war in the next 50 years?