It’s the End of the EU as We Know It

France and Germany ready to pare down the European Union… From Bloomberg:

“We want it to be impossible for the deregulation that led to the euro zone’s current situation to recurr any case, we want a new treaty,” Sarkozy said in Paris. “Our preference is for a treaty of 27 but we’re perfectly ready to have a treaty of 17.”

Who will make the cut and who won’t? Almost surely Greece won’t be in the group of 17, while Italy more than likely will. It’s too big an economy to leave out, and it has a lot of connections to energy-rich nations (read, Libya).

Go Non-Union: Invest in Emerging Europe

It was a very long two weeks… Not only was I watching the value of my dollar slip away, I was drowning my sorrows in Czech beer with a bunch of Canadians.

Needless to say, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed more often than not.

It was September 2008. I was starting my Eastern Europe reconnaissance trip when Lehman Brothers announced its bankruptcy, and the world’s biggest financial institutions fell to their knees under the sudden crushing weight of their poor investment decisions.

I should have run to the money exchange and turned all my dollars into euros. On Sept. 18, 2008, the U.S. dollar traded for 0.7004 euros. By the time it was clear that the government would not hand Lehman Brothers a bailout, the U.S. dollar was in a freefall.

On Sept. 24, one dollar would have only bought 0.6777 euros.

Let me put it to you another way. Excluding fees, if I had exchanged $400 on Sept. 18, I would have gotten €280.16. On Sept. 24, I would have gotten €271.08.

That’s a 3.24% drop in a week! Huge moves for currencies…

It may not seem like much, but when you’re on a travel budget and you’re keeping up with the Canucks at the bar… it hurts.