If (if,if,if) I had a lot of money to risk, I think I'd start investing in Europe. There are two new major governments, France and the U.K. (I don't know anything about the minor governments, but I did see an ad in the Wall Street Journal for Moldavia which leads me to think there is hope for that poorest of European states.)

Though I'm still fairly suspicious of Sarkozy, I am reasonably happy that he's pushing hard for the European Constitution and that he is strongly criticizing the U.S. for not working with other willing countries to reduce global warming.

What little I've seen about Gordon Brown in the U.K. reassures me that he's very experienced and has some good European values. Maybe better than Blair's. However, I have heard that he is a big, big Americanophile and comes here every year for vacation (maybe to balance off Blair's going to the Dordogne in France, which I rather more approve of). I think Brown is limited in what changes he can make early on due to the conservatism of the British socialists (similar to the American Democrats, though less so). And he's limited by the perceived need to keep good ties with the U.S. (I wonder if the U.K. thinks of itself as the tail wagging the U.S. dog, but I guess that would require even more ego that the Brits can manage.)

By the way, I saw an astounding discussion on the French channel I get here (TV5). There's a French author who has just published a book about the French fascination with England. (In the 18th Century, even while they were fighting the British in the 1770s, the French were adoring of English culture, liberties, and gardens.) (Sorry, I don't know why I'm doing so m any parentheses tonight. I think it might have something to do with the chocolate I'm eating.)

But, to continue, the above author said that the French were absolutely fascinated and admiring! of the Brits for their a. dynamic economy, b. free lifestyle and c. self-assuredness (compared to chronic and profound French self-doubt, which, by the way, endears them to me because I find self-doubt a much better road to wisdom and truth than a big ego). My experience, especially in the southwest of France is that the "bifteks" English are rather well detested for their icy natures. And also because they are buying and building so many homes around where Blair spends his summers. (Well, that's another story, since the French government has made property inheritance rules such a disaster for its own citizens.)

When my friends in France want to be particularly nasty to me (as a masochist I love the French sense of humor) they call me a (horrors!) Anglo-Saxon. Since, I'm slavic, Jewish, middle-eastern, Mediterranean and god knows what else in my mongrel American DNA I kind of like being labeled an Anglo-Saxon. It's so neat and perfunctory and creates a nice clean, though completely fanciful, box for me.

On the other hand, I suppose I am Anglo-Saxon in the way the French mean it. I don't have the passion and spontaneity of and Italian, a Spaniard or a Frenchman. Well, of course, that's why I go to France; hoping that some of that will rub off on me.

I have a feeling that the above author's book refers to his friends in the first and 17th Arrondisements of France, maybe somewhere around Parc Monceau. That's fitting, since that Parc was created by one of the greatest Anglophiles of the second half of the 18th century (he didn't make it into the 19th century having caught a sore throat from a steel blade). I'm speaking of that despicable libertine and pretentious pretender, Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, cousin of Louis XIV (for whose own sore throat from steel he voted-what goes around comes around). That duc's passion was not only for London bordellos but even more so for London horse racing, which he initiated in his own France. But I think, perhaps its the Bobos around Parc Monceau that are the Anglophiles in France and not the villagers around the Dordogne where the British were finally kicked out of the country in 1453.

Anyway, I would invest in Europe if I had the money. But more basic than that, I am desperate to see a strong and united Europe (with a less obtrusive Poland in its mix). With its 400 plus million people and its smarts and innovations it could play the most important role in the world. What is that role? Obviously, to counterbalance to the United States, whose anachronistic self-image of leader of the world (or at least some imagined and self-defined "free world" or even more magical "western world") has been uncovered for all to see in a most embarrassing way by our emperor with no clothes, George Bush. Isn't it obvious that even the "conservatives" in Europe are pushing for human rights, social nets and environmental responsibility, while the rest of the great powers like China, India, and the U.S., fail in all three areas.

Have an excellent weekend!