The European Economy

On the way into work today, I tuned into the Diane Rehm's show, talking about the  Results of the Greek Elections and the Future of the Euro Zone... Long story short, it sounds like Greece is in a real economic mess and threatens to drag all of Europe in. One line of thinking seems to be, that if the central bank bails out Greece, Spain and Italy are next in line in need of bailout.  Some policy makers want to make an example of Greece by kicking them out of the Eurozone, but I question if it really solves the problem -- other than threaten Spain and Italy into tightening their belts; and Greece would no longer be a financial burden of the Eurozone.

It's an oversimplification, I know!  And not knowing how the European Union/Euro is structured, I don't have a full grasp of the ramifications.  That and the European banking system seems like a overly complex house of cards.

It's also interesting to note that the Euro Cup also started this month.. My wife and I managed to catch part of a few matches during lunch this weekend... with nationalistic pride in full swing.  The whole economic mess can be completely ignored in the face of a good of soccer match.

But what does this have to do with LEGO?  Well, LEGO is a Danish company.  For those of you who have ordered BULKLUG, the orders are paid in DKK (Danish Krone), not Euros -- Denmark is outside of the Eurozone.  Because of this, it's a little insulated from the growing lack of confidence in the Euro.  But it's also interesting how this plays out in the price of LEGO sets across different European nations -- those nations hardest hit by the economy (Spain and Italy) are being charged a lesser amount of Euros compared to those that are more prosperous (Germany) right now.

...Actually, after Denmark lost to Germany yesterday in the Euro Cup, the markup on German LEGO sets doesn't surprise me.  :)

Oh, and Nicklas Bendtner is an idiot!