For the first time in the history of either company, both Peugeot and Renault have built more vehicles outside of France than in the glorious land of Bardot, Depardieu, Clouseau, Cousteau and Trust. The automakers reduced construction at home by fifteen percent, while foreign production has doubled in the past eight years. Analysts blame a sharp dip in the French market for the drop, although both companies sold fewer vehicles worldwide last year, as well. – Davey G. Johnsonand has weathered far worse problems, including the Civil War and the Great Depression. The European Union is only about 20 years old in its current form, and this is its first significant crisis. The consequences of mismanaging the U.S. financial system are significant to say the least. But unlike Europe, the consequences are not an immediate existential threat.

The Other Costs of the Crisis

It is the political dimension that has become the most important, not the financial. It may well be that the European Union is in the process of dealing with its banking problems and might avoid other sovereign debt issues, but the price it has paid is both a recession and, much more serious, unemployment at a higher rate than in the United States overall, and