"Needless ;-)"

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

There is a lot of truth to your argument - i.e. that people (at least on the left) voted against what they perceive to be the excessive neolib bias of Maastricht.

The problem with that vote, of course, is that in practice they voted against the new bits that they usually liked (strengthened European Parliament, charter of human rights, etc...) but in FAVOR of the Maastricht and Nice Treaty, because these remain in force in the absence of the new Constitution.

They voted against their explicit goals, something that I still am angry about. And they make euroskepticism good politics and most of our new leaders are thus weakly pro-European, which only compounds the problem, as national selfishness (which was never low, starting with the French) has vastly increased.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Excellent: and what I am saying is that through the creation of "Energy Pools" using new legal "wrappers" - such as the LLP or LLC - it is possible to create a model where investment IS Energy Capital and it is actually returned AS Energy Income.

Moreover, if energy producing assets are kept in Trust/Community Ownership, with Investor and Manager Partners receiving proportional shares and the balance remaining with the Community, then we could see an "Energy Dividend" or basic Energy Income to all.

In fact I am not the only one to advocate an International Energy Clearing Union, but I believe that this is the logical candidate for the basis of global trade in the future when the dollar reaches the end of the road.

Domestic trade, I think, will be based upon the flows of property rentals.

But in both cases we are essentially talking about monetary flows - of "Dynamic Value", where "Value" is "Money's Worth" such as energy.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson