a great help, i'll have a targeted areas to go to instead of getting over there and panicking and driving everywhere and spending the whole time in the car -
there was an excellent news piece on NPR today, they discussed "The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy," by T.R Reid. He was The Washington Post's former London Bureau chief. you can hear the interview at -www.freshair.com
It's about the collective economic power that the european union has now. the eu population is something in the area of 500,000 million - 25 countries? and how the eu is able to influence u.s. companies and even u.s. law.
He also talked about his time living in London and the extremely high taxes (is it called value-added tax?) ; he was trying to figure out why people weren't enraged about the 17.5% sales tax - then his daughter was hurt, they took her to the emergency room - she was treated and released; he went to pay and the nurse said, "you may put away your checks, we don't pay for medical care in this country". - amazing. here, a hospital bill can wipe out a family assets if they don't have health insurance.
thx a great deal.
