"Franken"? Was is das? Well, according to that doyen of the BBC, John Humphries, the 'franken' might be the name of the new currency to be adopted by the richer northern nations of Europe when the time comes for the 'Med-crips' to be booted out for their inability to repay their loans:
Stuermer [an advisor to Helmut Kohl at the birth of the euro] saw problems at the time and said so. That, he told me, 'landed me in the dog house'. now, he claims - with some justification - that he was right. he sees three possible outcomes. one is that the rich countries keep propping up the poorer ones by guaranteeing to continue bailing them out (albeit at the risk of stoking inflation).
The other is that the Euro is abandoned and the North sets up its own currency. It might be called the Franken or the Gildea or possibly even the Euro.
The third is that Greece and the other weak members of the Eurozone overcome their problems and push through the reforms that are needed to pay back their debts.
That, he said, would take a miracle. He summed it up like this: 'We are talking about two catastrophes and one miracle - and the miracle is the most unlikely outcome.'
Well, I have been telling you for ages that the whole thing was a New Frankish Empire in disguise so calling their currency a 'franken' is entirely appropriate. The only problem is that like so many of us who have owned and run empires before, the Germans and their French poodles, are finding out that it is an exceedingly expensive hobby and that colonies, by and large, are a dead loss!
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