War and joint bonds forge a more united Europe – POLITICO
Ever closer union Something similar is going on now at the European level, analysts say. The move toward defense by potentially enormous debt financing seems “to be actually going back to how people thought about this in the 18th and 19th century,” James said. “It’s not necessary for a state to have its own money. Early modern states often operated with all kinds of coinages … But the states do need to defend themselves,” he added. “They need an army.” The war in Ukraine has also forced European policymakers to consider major fiscal adjustments that were previously unthinkable — and which have long been seen as a first step toward a deeper union. Germany’s relaxation of its debt brake for the military is, at first glance, strictly a national decision — one that it will put to the vote in its lower house on Tuesday. But the jettisoning of the national taboo on debt suggests a softening of its long-held fiscally conservative stance at the European level. It’s in Berlin’s interest that if it goes …
