A little of this, a little of that, from some of my blogger colleagues:
Edward Hugh brings our attention to a Financial Times report on a new proposal from Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party that would make the largest countries in the EU
"...the motor of the new Europe."
Mr Sarkozy said this G6 - France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and Poland - should make collective proposals to other EU leaders. The other members could accept or reject these proposals, but they should not be able to prevent the G6 from pursuing them.
In another post, Edward reports that the Swiss have voted to gradually ease restrictions on the free movement of workers from the EU-10 'new accession’ members.
And from Edward one more time, this news:
Eurostat reports that 12 EU states exceeded the 3% stability and growth pact limit last year...
All the larger EU states (with the honourable exception of Spain) had excess deficits...
Maybe that helps to explain this, from Nattering Naybob:
While most investors suspected there was wholesale diversification from USD holdings by major central banks, the IMF’s data paint a very different picture. The volume of EUR purchases last year was significantly less (about half) than the share of EUR holdings in total reserves at end-2003.
The latest IMF report shows global holdings of official reserves in USDs rose from 65.8% to 65.9%.
A related take, from The Prudent Investor:
I assume that the political uncertainties in Germany and fears of unabatedly rising deficits in the USA will keep currencies in an equilibrium.