Europe’s financial troubles will probably lead the EU and the eurozone to a stronger fiscal system – but only after a bumpy ride this year, according to Simon Johnson, a U.S- based economist who has been prescient about the crisis. In his view, the eurozone can weather an intensifying financial whirlwind at the cost of three crucial conditions:
Despite speculation, EU not set to defy U.S. by lifting arms embargo on China
Reports of renewed efforts by France and some other member states to modify the EU’s boycott on weapons sales to China have been met with firm denials in Brussels that any change is imminent in the European stance. “The timing is wrong: it would make little difference to Beijing at this point, but it could do real damage in Washington at a moment when Europe might be able to score its biggest-ever transatlantic military sale in the EADS airborne refueling tanker,” according to a European expert. Any shift in favor of the Chinese military would probably arouse a strong anti-European backlash in the new Congress, he said.
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