Interesting paper by Nicholas Kulish in the Washington Monthly about EU/USA relationships. The authors explains the recent fact that the US are ore and more dependent on Brussels' decision (for instance GE's did not merge with Honeywell because of this). The authors explains why (EU building, Maastricht Treaty, birth of Euro that becomes the world's premier currency...) and then move to the future...

The degree to which Europe may soon be dictating economic terms to America has not yet dawned on most of official Washington, but it will soon, and it will come as a shock. Why, politicians will ask, should the decisions of a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels force our companies to raise fuel standards, rewrite food labels, or strengthen software privacy protections? Think tanks will host conferences to denounce the high regulatory costs of complying with Europe's standards. Newspaper columnists will demand that the president show some backbone and fight for American economic freedom. After much heated rhetoric, it will dawn on Washington that we face a choice: stand forthrightly behind our principles of independence, or sell our products and services abroad. In the end, we will decide that in economics, as in foreign affairs, it is more in our interests to work with the Europeans than against them. For a proud and powerful nation like ours, it will not be easy. But as Dennis Hastert said, we'll just have to do it.