By ALEX ALEXIEV
Special to CBBSS.org
As Greece defaults on its IMF debt and faces a possible exit from the eurozone, it is worth reminding ourselves that the Greek collapse is neither unexpected nor a one-off unique event, as the EU bureaucracy never ceases to tell us. Rather, it may be the first, albeit radical, manifestation of the systemic weakness of an effort to create European political unity by economic means. What we are witnessing now was, in fact, predicted by Milton Friedman at the very beginning of the Euro experiment. Writing in August 1997, Friedman didn’t beat about the bush in pinpointing the problem: “Europe’s common market exemplifies a situation that is unfavorable to a common currency” and “the drive for the Euro has been motivated by politics not economics” aiming to “set the stage for a federal United States of Europe” and concluded presciently, “I believe that it would have the opposite effect.” If Friedman was right, and I believe he was, the Greek tragedy is only the first act in the inevitable collapse of a house of cards.