[s_dev]

Trump's actions are pushing Europeans towards federalisation as a broader trend.

More specifically things like this are happening quietly in the background:

https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/eu-inc-maki...

This mandates a few things:

Countries must do certain things in English to ensure a common language.

Simple liquidation for bankruptcies, register once and operate across the EU.

Places like Germany have loads of talent but are cumbersome to setup a startup etc. This reduces that.

Things won't change overnight but a decade from now things will look a bit different, capital markets won't match the US by then but I expect the dependence trend will start to have reversed. There is no crystal ball for these things.

[RandomLensman]

There is stuff happening but I think most of it is addressing side issues (and cannot address some cores outside of an actual USofE, if then).

For example, how would that overcome local resistance to new infrastructure or reduce the huge amount of (local) regulations in a significant way?

[s_dev]

The US has these issues as well as still has a strong tech sector, you also have to keep in mind a successful outcome for the EU won't be what the US has right now either. You get charts like this floating around the internet: https://postimg.cc/Yh8TPs8g

Nearly always presented as a 'dick swinging' look how great we are chart in a EU vs US vs China stand off. However it reveals flaws in the US as well. A successful tech sector in the EU will be lots of small bubbles where the combined area is somewhat approximates what is in the US and China.

A handful of giants is not desired here in the EU, you can see the issues this presents in the US as well, chiefly: it's distorting the political system to becoming like Russia. Oligarchy.

That's not even getting in to the chart is deeply flawed but that's not the point I'm making.

[RandomLensman]

Yes, certain issues are found in the US, too, but doesn't mean they shouldn't perhaps be addressed.

Some things also might need scale at least in aggregate and either tech leads to some sort of Coasian singularity or having a lot of small things comes with additional transaction costs.

[joe_mamba]

>A handful of giants is not desired here in the EU

Then explain the giant Airbus. Or the giant VW. Or the giant Siemens. Or the giant Dassault. Or the giant ABB. Or the giant Stellantis. Or the giants Shell and Total. Or the giants BNP Paribas and Santander.

This whole "EU hates giants" trope being repeated on HN is just unfounded cope at EU's failure to scale and grow its newer domestic players to challenge the ones from the US and China, so they spin its weakness and failures as some form of benevolent virtue the EU is doing for the world by not building giant companies, when the truth is it just can't even though the EU would love to have US style giants as they bring in a lot of revenue along with geopolitical soft and hard power the EU is severely lacking ATM. If EU actually hated giants it would break up Airbus, Siemens, Dassault, Stellantis and others into smaller companies for more competition instead of supporting mergers that support its domestic monopolies.

> it's distorting the political system to becoming like Russia. Oligarchy.

It isn't. EU's own domestic giants are good enough at distorting EU politics without being FANG size. See VW political spending after Dieselgate. Or the political spending of the auto sector in general to shape regulations in their favor since they control so many jobs across EU's largest economies.

If you have a corrupt government that gives in to corporate interests, it's not the size of your companies that's the cause, it's the corruption of your elected leaders, since no company is above the government no matter how big it would get, as the government has the courts, police and military which no company can match, which is why companies always bend over to government requests

A Russia style oligarchy comes if the government gets too big, powerful and unaccountable, not from the size of corporations. Putin didn't attack Ukraine because corporate Russian lobbyist paid him to. In fact most Russian businesses, oligarchs and entrepreneurs got absolutely wrecked by Putin's idea to invade Ukraine, they never wanted this because they have more to lose from this.

It's the government that fucks shit up for the people, not the corporations. Big corporations just dance to the tune the government plays.

[s_dev]

Joe Biden says ‘oligarchy’ emerging in US in final White House address

https://www.ft.com/content/262f2980-a380-45b0-bcaf-1d7d68918...

Average American is suffering and it's them who's coping with the idea that a small percentage of Americans are at least getting extremely wealthy.

US is threatening to invade Canada and Greenland, this sort of rhetoric is beyond unhinged. The US under Trump has literally been downgraded as a 'liberal democracy' and is now an 'electoral democracy' the same category as Hungary under Orban. https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy...

The EU has no giants, what you listed are large companies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by...

[nradov]

It's ironic that the EU has adopted English as their primary language now that England is no longer in the EU.

[jandrewrogers]

It almost certainly makes it easier to adopt English, since it no longer has the political optics of favoring a country.

[627467]

The issue i with this type of "pragmatism" that leads English being the main working language (a language that is only official in one country and even there is "seen as colonial relic") is this sort of half-assing attitude is what created the status quo - EU and european people lacking autonomy in all sorts of social and economic life.

[joe_mamba]

Ireland?

[f33d5173]

Ireland can claim that actually they'd rather it be gaelic. It has the perception of a colonizer language for them too.