Europe in disarray

This is very, very bad news (if alas not wholely unexpected):

Merkel Rejects Eastern Europe Bailout Plan

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Germany rejected appeals Sunday for a single multibillion euro (dollar) bailout of eastern Europe, even after Hungary begged EU leaders not to let a new ''Iron Curtain'' divide the continent into rich and poor.
The swift, strong comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel dampened hopes that leaders at Sunday's European Union summit could forge a unified stance to tackle the worsening economic crisis.

Bad enough yes? But here's a little kicker buried deep in the article:

Sunday's talks are meant to restore a unified purpose and help prepare for the April 2 Group of 20 nations summit in London.

Uh oh. Very bad news indeed. We really rather need the G20 to be functional, and for the April 2 meeting to resemble a gathering of adults. Looks as if we need to forget that idea. Even Europe cannot get it together. Rather than restore a 'unified purpose', today's talks have only created deeper fissures and sewn greater anger between Central and Eastern Europe and, especially, Germany. Even before this weekends events, things had pretty much been falling apart in the EU. As the AP rather dryly put it (emphasis mine):

EU nations are all grappling with a worsening recession, compounded by a severe credit crunch that has left many EU countries looking ever more inward to protect jobs and companies from international competition. Those policies are now undermining the open market cornerstone on which the EU is founded

As noted, in only one month the G-20 meets to discuss a unified approach to this mushrooming crisis. If Europe cannot agree on a rescue package for relatively small countries (and in fact Europe is getting closer and closer to some sort of breakdown), how can we expect nations with such diverse (and often conflicting) interests such as Russia, China, Turkey, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Gulf States, plus the G7 etc etc to possibly agree on anything?

Protectionism anyone? For a fun little exercise, Google News search the P word form time to time. You'll see news of it in every corner of the world, and the hits keep on coming: here's the count a moment ago: Results 1 – 10 of about 19,597 for protectionism.

Of such stuff are sewn the seeds of a true global Depression....