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A whole range of issues can be seen in the debt crises in developing countries. The margin for error shrinks with poor governance, lack of honest assessment and transparency for finances, wars and conflicts within or outside the countries, living beyond their means, lack of focus on development, infrastructure that is unproductive or unaffordable including some Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure at higher interest rates. Countries that are dependent on overseas remittances, tourism, that were hit hard by the pandemic have seen their finances further weakened reducing the margin for error even more to the point that the smallest tipping point can lead to huge crises. Once the finances are weak all it takes is an external tipping point that creates serious crisis. The war in Ukraine with shortages of wheat, fertilizer and skyrocketing oil prices acted as that tipping point. Because this was a major blow the crises have a level of magnitude that is more than a payments crisis. One sees this in South Asia in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and in the Middle East for countries such as Egypt and Tunisia shown in this WSJ report. It is now not simply a crisis but a crisis of great magnitude because in the case of Sri Lanka and Pakistan this WSJ report says that both countries foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to the point where they can pay for only one or two months of imports according to central bank data, analysts and IMF. This crisis has affected countries that were seeing steady foreign investment such as Turkey for decades, then a sharp falloff in foreign investment with a change in the climate for foreign investment. The crisis has taken the form of high inflation, significant depreciation of currency that makes imports costlier so that shrinking revenues from loss of remittances, tourism, or other sources will now have less value in supporting import needs. Lack of a credible path can delay setting a path out of the crisis. The $1.5 billion fuel and electricity subsidy made by the prime minister of Pakistan in late February was done without IMF approval leading to the IMF program having to be renegotiated. Lack of national political and cultural consensus on a solution simply makes it that much more difficult to find the way through it. In this regard South Korea was able to tackle the 1997 financial payments crisis effectively because of a national consensus. The situation in Egypt- Egypt has borrowed $20 billion from the IMF since 2016., placing it second to Argentina in aid from IMF since 1980's.  In 2020 and 2021 Egypt' government spent more than 40% of its revenue servicing its debt, and is forecast to do the same in 2022. The situation in Tunisia- A shortage of sugar, flour, and other critical supplies, and government delaying wage payments to civil servants. The government got $400 million in financing last month from the World Bank and hopes to secure a lifeline from the IMF. Compared to the period between the 2 World Wars the two bright spots are China and India where lessons of the past of civil wars, religious or political conflict, and poor governance, lack of knowledge of how the western countries industrialized and modernized, was replaced with the conviction that drives patient effort, courage in the face of adversity, honesty, and humility to learn including from western countries that have forged their own path through the same difficult road. The most difficult experiences have offered lessons which were learned- for South Korea the Korean War and invasion from the north, China the civil war and Japanese invasion, for India the partition of India and million of refugees. Stagnation from stumbled efforts also taught lessons, the Great Leap Forward in China, the License Raj with corruption in India.       ...

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Overall consumer prices were up 4.4% higher in October 2010, than a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Most of the increase in prices was concentrated on food and energy. China is taking action to limit price increases. During previous rise in inflation in 2004 and 2005, the government has resorted to detailed price controls. China's cabinet of ministers, the State Council, has issued orders that local governments and other government entities provide temporary subsidies to help the needy cope with rising prices and to increase allowances for needy students. Chia fears social unrest if prices go much above 5%. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN warns that food prices have gone up by 10% in the poorer countries. According to economists, China is effectively printing its currency renminbi to buy $1 billon a day worth of dollars to keep the renminbi weak, so that its exporters retain an advantage in overseas markets. The central bank takes away some of this renminbi but not all from the system, by selling bonds to state owned banks and increasing the amount of reserves required at the central bank. To keep the renminbi from rising, China's central bank buys up the investment dollars that are coming into the country, as well as dollars coming into the country from the trade surplus....

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This editorial in the Economist says Spain's economy has recovered to pre crisis levels by 2018 with growth at 3 percent. It says Spain had a bigger crisis than Italy and took stronger measures under prime minister Rajoy to fix problems in its banking system, address the housing crisis, and unemployment. Italy's steps by comparison were timid and faltering. Mr. Rajoy had his problems including corruption scandals in his party and a poor handling of the Catalan drive for independence. Yet Spain owes muchas gracias to Rajoy for his leadership in bringing Spain out of the housing and economic crisis, and for running the country for two and a half years after losing his majority in parliament.  Another difference with Italy is the generally favorable attitude to immigration for all parties. Of the newer parties Ciudadanos remains at the centre and the Podemos party remains to the left in politics, as part of the populist changes in Spain during the economic crisis. The new government of Pedro Sanchez has a positive attitude to immigrants and to women, with the largest number of women in the cabinet of any European country. ...

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Chile's experience in Latin America stands out for the painful experience of the dictatorship years and the mismanagement of the economy by the government preceding it. The governments of the last 20 years of the Concertacion have studied the mistakes of these years and corrected them to aremarkable degree, like no other country in Latin America. The new politicians decided that the economy had to be managed so that inflation was under control and these Concertacion administrations produced budget surpluses in all but 4 years says Finance Minister Velasco. Velasco himself was 13 years old when the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was set up, and his father a law professor had to leave the country for criticizing human rights abuses. He studied economics at Columbia University, and his principal focus there was he says, " to understand how did this happen to Chile and how do we make sure it will nhot happen again." His finding was that runaway inflation had created so much unrest among the people that coup plots could take place, and that political stability could not be maintained without good management of the economy. It also meant that Chile must avoid extremes, try to take amoderate position, which meant preserving the free market reforms that had taken place, and introducing policy measures, projects and investment which helped to bring up the vast majority of the people including the least well off of society. Velasco also studied the history of Latin American economies with their boom and bust cycle, the situation in countries especially Argentina and sometimes in Brazil and other countries since the fifties. He found as he says that when " a country seems very creditworthy, everyone wants to lend to you, capital flows in and consumption booms." At some point excessive amounts of capital flow in which cannot be absorbed and is wasted in unproductive ways, which becomes adebt burden as the bust part of the cycle takes hold. So Chile has been careful to control speculative inflows of capital. But Velaco went further. In 2006 he left a Professorship at Harvard University to become finance minister of Chile under President Ms. Bachelet. Copper prices were surging and Velasco insisted on caution. In 2006 he pushed through a law requiring the annual budget to be based on an independedt committtee's estimate of the average price of copper in the next 10 years. Any copper income above the budgeted price goes into a savings fund maintained outside the country. In 2007 the copper price used in the calculation was $1.21 a pound, while the market price was $3.23 a pound. The profits $6 billion for 2007 went into the rainy day fund, which is invested conservatively in government bonds or money market instruments denominated in dollars, euros and yen. This fund is now at$20 billion. What is remarkable for Velasco is the way this was executed. The price used was conservative, the political pressures from unions and students and other groups was resisted effectively, and the whole exercize was carried out to successful conclusion even as popular support for the government dropped. When the crisi hit in December 2007 copper prices plummeted. Velasco announced a stimulus package, getting the $4 billion stimulus package through both Houses of Congress in January 2009. Chile expects only adrop of 0.5% in GDP in 2009 year over year. $500 million was given to stae owned bank BancoEstado, which reduced consumer lending rates by half. The package offers subsidies for businesses to hire younger workers, $700 million for large infrastructure program designed to create 60,000 jobs in road paving, airport upgrades and housing construction. And 1.7 million families, the poorest 40% of the population received cash stipends from the government equivalent to $70, with another stipend due in August....

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The Netherlands government of prime minister Mark Rutte collapsed on April 22, 2012, after the Freedom party of Geert Wilders said it would not support futher budget cuts. Mr. Wilders said: "We don't want our pensioners to bleed just to meet the dictates coming from Brussels." Government forecasts had predicted the Netherlands deficit at 4.6% of GDP in 2012, above the 3% goal set by the European Union. And negotiations that collapsed were about making $18 billion in budget cuts to help meet the deficit goal. Rutte will now lead a caretaker government till elections in September or October 2012. Credit agencies may lower the Netherlands credit ratings from AAA and this would raise Netherlands borrowing costs in coming months. The result would be to increase the deficit even further. The Netherlands government was a strong supporter of Germany to introduce strict austerity measures and budget cuts in the eurozone during the debt crisis in EU countries in 2010-2011. With the elections in France and the defeat of French president Sarkozy in the first phase of elections by Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, the austerity programs in Europe appear to be unravelling. The deeper Europe goes into a recession in 2012-2013, the more likely new measures will be needed to address competitiveness, growth, interest rates and overvalued currencies as opposed to largely fiscal and budget measures alone....

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It is important for a correct sense of the Middle East to see these British Arab states from Kuwait to UAE and Qatar in the context of British India if one is to see them as part of the modern world as India is. This is now US policy under DJT and has been under Biden for a peaceful economically advanced region. A third of Arabian peninsula Arab protectorates were run from British India from 1800 onwards. The Interpretation Act of 1889 listed the states under British India in the Arabian peninsula including Kuwait, Bahrain, Aden now Yemen, Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and they were listed along with Jaipur, Hyderabad and Bhawalpur. British Prime minister Clement Attlee wanted to give independence to these Arab states along with the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. But this did not happen till 1971. In 1937 the first of many separations from the British Empire in India of Arab states was announced. Aden, now Yemen, was separated from the British Empire in India to the Colonial Empire. British Empire authorites in Delhi never wanted to administer these Arab states even though the British Indian Political Service ran each of these states till 1971. They were very poor and lacking basic infrastructure, things changed only after the discovery of oil in late 1930's. ...

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As the first day of talks happens in Brussels between Barnier of the EU and Davis of Britain, EU officials say Britain must meet spending pledges it made of 60 billion euros. Britain says there are different legal views on what is owed. Experts see little chance the two sides can reach an agreement by the deadline of March 2019. With the fragile coalition government in Britain talks appear to be very precarious with no clear view what Brexit means.

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  A new German party called BSW,  Bundnis (Association) Sarah Wagenknecht, means Germany nationally could see a smaller Social Democrats party in parliament making way for the socialists who want to keep out migrants. Across East Germany a new party is challenging the AfD from the socialist side getting the protest vote against pro-migrant policies.The socialist BSW party is taking votes from the SPD and DIe Linke Left, from Free Democrats and Greens in the state parliamentary elections in East German states of Thuringia, Saxony, Brandenburg. Nationally SPD may be 15-20%, BSW 10%, and CDU 30%, AfD 10-15%, FDP 10%, Greens 10% in a new shape for German parliamentary representation. The AfD and far right in Germany is challenged by the BSW with both parties opposing policies that led to large scale migrant flows into Germany of Angela Merkel.  BSW is the socialist party of Sarah Wagenknecht which is opposed to migrants entering the country as it distracts from tackling the problems of the working class in Germany and burdens public services when needs are greater among the local communities.  It sees the ruling Christian Democrats, Social Democrat and Free Demcorats, Greens, as out of touch with the problems of working class Germans struggling to make a living. BSW also opposes the wars in Ukraine and Gaza for the same reasons as it takes away resources that are better used to tackle problems at home. The AfD party also opposes migrants but is seen as feeding on the grievances of people of old east German communist state who feel left behind by the reunification of Germany. As a socialist party BSW is for addressing problems of inequality and poverty, childcare, cost of living action, housing, and many of the problems of the working class. Mette Frederiksen Danish prime minister has combined socialist ideas with anti-migrant position in Denmark. A similar position is being taken in the US by the Biden Harris administration in the US by closing the Border with Mexico.  Who is Sahra Wagenknecht and the BSW? Bundnis Sarah Wagenknecht or Association of Sarah Wagenknecht is a socialist party that grew out of Sarah Wagenknecht's own experience growing up in the socialist state of the German Democratic Republic during her formative years in East Berlin.  Born to a Iranian father who disappeared in Iran, and a German mother she was raised by her grandparents. She was active in the socialist parties Die Linke group in parliament since 2000. She received her bachelors degree in philosophy and New German Literature at East Berlin Humboldt University. Followed by MA at Groningen University in philosophy of Marx-Hegel and a doctoral degree from TU Chemnitz in Economics. She was member of parliament in the Bundestag and leader of the Die Linke group. The twin 2009 financial crisis by banks pursuing excessive leverage profits and unethical dealings, the euro crisis that followed of state actors misrepresenting their finances, the rent seeking attitudes of finance, pharma, tech monopolies and other industries has led her along with Italian economist Mazzucato to question the existing system. ...

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Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute points to trade barriers reducing competition and free trade that should raise an outcry when free trade and competition advocates focus alone on the Trump steel tariffs. He points to estimates that show $90 billion in additional costs to Americans from the barriers that prevent Americans from paying world market prices for surgeries and medical treatment, prices similar to what is paid in advanced countries like Germany, Britain and France. A bigger barrier in pharmaceuticals prices being sheltered from market competition worldwide costs a huge $370 billion in additional costs to Americans. These two costs in healthcare would help Americans by a magnitude compared to tax cuts that do not work for average Americans with the business tax cut going more into share buybacks than into increasing wages or capital investment in 2018.  Bernstein points to Neil Irwin's column in the NYT that flags statements such as Senator Mike Lee, Republican, that the steel tariffs are a huge job killing tax hike, as being misleading. Bernstein says two actions were never taken that would have used benefits of free trade to help affected communities that lost jobs in industries such as steel and textiles, other industries affected by foreign competition.  He lists these steps as sectoral employment training, apprenticeships ,and job creation efforts in the worst affected areas. Basically no one really knows what is good trade policy, the textbook concepts and theories are out of date when countries can subsidize particular industries such as steel and dump products into the American market. At a press conference on CSPAN with the Swedish prime minister Mr. Trump stated that China was exporting more than what is officially shown as there are transshipments from other countries, some of them with no steel mills.  As Mr. Trump stated at that press conference he was elected partly because of the worst affected communities- in places such as Michigan and other states in the midwestern U.S.- that suffered from unfair trade. Bernstein admonishes the economists and politicians, media, for the headlines that are misleading in showing that bad trade policy is being pursued and trade wars are being started. This deserves attention because the Trump administration and advisors such as Lighthizer who served in the Reagan administration seek fair trade, and the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross successfully pushed for NAFTA trade deal renegotiation not the outright rejection of NAFTA that was mentioned in the election campaign. Ironically no one is helped by this trade rhetoric and misleading headlines. In fact the strengthening of the U.S. currency as the huge trade surplus of China goes into U.S. assets, and with the election of Mr. Trump, gives foreign competitors a continued advantage. And in fact Japan, South Korea, China, had a mild response to the tariffs as reported, because these countries are aware of global overcapacity created especially by China which produces 50% of the world's steel, and as China shifts to higher technologically value added products closing many older steel mills. ...

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Kozo Yamamoto joined the Finance Ministry in 1971, and is serving his sixth term as member of Japan's parliament. Since 2011 Yamamoto has convinced Abe, a colleague in parliament, about the need for reflationist policies now called Abenomics. This helped Abe make a comeback win for the prime minister's position for a second time. Yamamoto led the study group that convinced Abe of the need to delay the second increase in the consumption tax to 2017, and a 3 trillion yen stimulus package to encourage household spending, following the economy's fallback into a recession in Nov. 2014. He says it was important to not add to the headwinds the economy is facing. Yamamoto does not fall into the conservative mold of people from the Finance Ministry, as he takes tango lessons, is interested in fine pottery, and in Italian cooking. He has called bureaucrats in the ministry and central bankers "feckless" and "defiant," after years of questioning them in parliament and demanding reflationist policies. With the snap election in December 2014 the Abe led LDP is taking on the conservative Finance Ministry officials, who have insisted on sticking with the old timetable for the tax increase, regardless of the headwinds and slowing exports....

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Yuriko Koike is elected the first woman governor of Tokyo, in a three way race, winning by over a million votes. She was Minister of Defense in the first government of prime minister Abe in 2007 which lasted only a short time. She was a news anchor before being elected to parliament in 1992 and supporting conservative causes. As a student she studied overseas learning Arabic at the American University of Cairo, and getting a degree in sociology at the University of Cairo. At 64 she is relatively young compared to a LDP candidate who was 76. The previous two governors resigned from office in financial scandals. Her immediate task is preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and keeping the costs down for Tokyo residents.

 

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Khedery describes the complete collapse in Sunni- Shiite relations under the Maliki regime and the Iranian influence in Iraqi politics in stark terms. It will take a near miracle, tolerance for religious faiths and opinion, and an exceptional leader, to turn things around and put the decades of misrule of Hussein and Maliki behind. Without that there can be no Iraq. Khedery goes into the misrule in a manner that American political and military leaders only talk about in a sparing manner so as not to make the entire Middle East policy look disastrous.

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Pop and Troinanovski look at the tough negotiations ahead for Brexit and describe Theresa May as a experienced negotiator. Belgian Interior Minister Jambon says she has "a lot of policy knowledge" and moved in the direction of European cooperation. Germany Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich says May has a very clear idea of her objective, uses clear language, and is consistent. Yet much depends on other factors including elections in Germany and France in 2017. For France and Hollande the issue becomes particularly filled with implications with the need not to give the far right and Marie Le Pen any advantage by making concessions in the negotiations. German chancellor Merkel is also very clear from her perspective on migration and free movement in the European Union, a point on which she was tested by other Eastern European countries during the refugee crisis. Merkel made this clear that it was Britain's choice of direction in future relations- "Whoever wants free access to the European single market must in return accept all of the basic freedoms, including the free movement of people." Because of domestic politics in Germany and France and in the rest of the European Union, these negotiations could drag on for a very long time. The only positive sign for both sides is that May is known as a responsible politician after 6 years as Britain's Home Secretary, holding one of the top positions in the cabinet. As Merkel's popularity has recovered with about 55% popular support and the decline in the support for the AfD in recent poll cited by DW.com, Merkel may be prepared for a long negotiation to keep the original idea and spirit of the founders of the European Union alive and strong. ...

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Oil importing countries in East Africa will benefit from lower oil import bills. Measured as a percentage of GDP the oil imports will go down from 6.3% to 3.7% of GDP for Tanzania, from 6.2% to 3.7% for Mozambique, from 6.0% to 3.6% for Kenya and from 4.8% to 2.8% for South Africa. For the oil exporting countries for revenue decline as a percentage of GDP, Ghana goes from 2.7% to 1.6%, Nigeria from 15.7% to 9.3%, and Angola from 56% to 33%. About 80% of Nigeria's budget comes from oil revenues which will result in spending cuts. About 14% of GDP in Nigeria is dependent on the oil sector, because of the growth in retail and telecommunications. Nigeria's finance minister estimates the decline in GDP growth by 1% to 5.3% for 2015. Benefits from lower oil prices are offset by decline in the price of iron ore and other commodity exports for South Africa, and from the decline in the South African currency, the Rand. Drop in the value of iron ore exports affects other parts of West Africa such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Projects for large investments by large oil companies in Uganda and Angola may be delayed as oil prices decline. ...

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Lt. Gen Trainor and Michael Gordon describe the situation during the last months of U.S. presence in Iraq. President Obama is ambivalent about the size of the military presence he would like to leave, settling for 3000 troops and a few F-16's from a inital figure of 10,000. Obama sees the presidential election approaching and sets an objective of keeping it minimal. The military cooperation treaty with Iraq has to be approved by a Iraqi parliament with different factions in parliament not likely to approve it. Prime Minister Malliki decides not to move ahead. In the end no military cooperation treaty is signed after 8 years of war and a date is set for a complete withdrawal. Iraqi airspace is used by Iran to ship supplies to Syria's Assad regime, and the U.S. has less leverage in the region as the Arab world goes through a transition to popular government and elections. The Obama administration shifts most of its attention to Afghanistan where the U.S. has no vital stake in the long run compared to the Middle East region, with its large population, growing economies, move towards democracy and meeting the aspirations of hundreds of millions of young people. One Middle Eastern leader says the U.S. had no long term policy under the Obama administration for Iraq, and this applies also to the rest of the Middle East region, and mostly reacted to events as they happened. The Obama administration's committment to the war in Afghanistan, just as it focussed on winding down the war in Iraq, responded to the American public's waning support for the war in Iraq. It did not reduce the total cost of the conflicts because of the initial escalation of the war in Afghanistan and later slow progress towards a negoiated settlement to that conflict. A negotiated settlement is the best the U.S. could achieve, and the best desired objective considering the limited interests in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan most of the dynamics would be determined in the long run by the situation in Pakistan, and India-Pakistan relations, which the U.S. could influence constructively only through dialogue, promoting cooperation between the two countries, and economic relations....

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Prime minister Renzi of Italy says he is determined to push through changes that will let entrpreneurs hire and let go employees as needed. He proposes an agency to handle retraining of employees no longer needed by firms. He points out that he respects the role of unions, but that the fate of the economy must come first before the fate of the unions.

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A summary with graphs that show India US cooperation in five critical areas from trade and climate change to defense and manufacturing technologies, H-1B visas, in the Times of India. India has a trade surplus with the US and efforts are made to increase Indian exports and import new manufacturing technologies. In the Biden administration India has a serious partner as is evident in the discussion with prime minister Modi during his visit to US.

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900 million eligible voters in India means this is the largest election ever. The election will take place in 7 phases in April and May from April 11 to May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23. The election is for 543 seats in parliament, the Lok Sabha. Turnouts are high with 66% turning out in the last election that brought Mr. Modi and the BJP to power.  Unlike elections in Britain a lot is spent in each election, about $5 billion in the last election and double that this time. The U.S. elections in 2016 had spending of $6.5 billion as a comparison. Women vote at about the same rate as men and more women than men are expected to vote this time. Prime minister Modi won the last election with promises of development and infrastructure. He is delivering on infrastructure but building manufacturing and generating jobs in the formal sector remains a tougher task for any administration in 4 years. During the first term Mr. Modi made needed changes including introducing the GST tax to integrate India's fragmented market and get rid of a patchwork of regional state taxes. He introduced a whole range of projects and yojanas which are setting the stage for widening the middle class, and improving living conditions. Some of the problems such as the bad loans in the banking system date back to previous administrations and the government has taken steps to clean up this problem by refinancing banks and introducing a bankruptcy law. This has slowed GDP growth to about 7%. However this would have happened under any administration.  The brief war with Pakistan in February 2019 has added another dimension to this election with questions about whether this may help Mr. Modi because of his strong stand against terrorism camps in Pakistan.  In the end it all comes down to whether the public still believes the BJP party under Modi is best qualified to develop the infrastructure to modernize the country and improve services, and whether it can create enough of the manufacturing capabilities to generate jobs needed. It may not be that the BJP under Modi has  not made mistakes in the process of learning how best to tackle development, but whether a patchwork of regional parties led by the opposition Congress party is in a position to provide the strong decisive direction to make quick decisions on development. Getting the agreement of a number of regional parties such as the party in West Bengal state or the Uttar Pradesh state when it was under a previous administration of Mrs Mayawati means an even slower rate of decision making as it leads to lack of speedy decision making. Whether voters have short memories and forget the slow rate of infrastructure development under previous administrations or have a willingness to give the BJP a chance to show what it can do under Modi for development can eventually decide this election. An example of what this means is in how the Mumbai Metro is being pushed through to timely delivery- Metro Rail's head Mrs. Ashwini Bhide simply says she feels for the people of Mumbai who have suffered from delays in development of needed infrastructure for so long, with millions doing appalling rides in a creaky old rail system. In her view it should have been done yesterday. It is this attitude that can make or break the current administration, and whether it can get this message through to voters one more time. Most who have this attitude are aware that China is now laying enough concrete every two years than America did in the whole 20th century, as reported in the Guardian newspaper, and are equally passionate about delivery of services and rapid development of badly needed infrastructure.         ...

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This piece in Der Spiegel points out that Brexit may be an opportunity if European leaders recognize that there can be different levels of unity, and that different countries in the EU can advance at their own pace with Germany and France providing a core group. There is no longer the need for continual enlargement of the European Union as has happened before. It also offers a time to take some deep breaths and reflect on the progress so far and where it has come short, what to do about it, such as the bureaucracy that has grown in Brussels, the different views on immigration, and public sentiment. Actually the whole progress towards the European Community, and then the European Union has evolved over time. In the immediate postwar years, after one setback Adenauer once said during the difficult negotiations in 1951-52 between France and Germany to set up the European Coal and Steel Community, predecessor of the European Community and the European Union- "arme Europa, arme Europa," (poor Europe, poor Europe). The Dutch and Belgian delegates had strong differences for the headquarters for the ECSC- Turin was rejected, Liege and Brussels were proposed, until Monnet was made head of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community with headquarters in Luxembourg. Monnet himself considered stepping down a couple of times because of differences, and the Editor of Le Monde described Monnet's plans for European integration as "a leap in the dark." This was the first of many difficult steps in the evolution of the European Union. Nationalist feeling was nothing new, as the Gaullists opposed Monnet's drive for European unity when it differed from their ideas. Still Monnet persevered and progress took place every ten years as it must now.  ...