“Across the continent, political divisions are deepening. For all of these reasons, the specter of a euro zone collapse has not been dispatched.”

The 24% unemployment reached at the depths of the Great Depression was no picnic.

Why was there so much work-sharing in the 1930s? One reason is that government pushed for it. In his memoirs, President Herbert Hoover estimated that as many as two million workers avoided unemployment as a result of his efforts to promote work-sharing.

For those unfortunate enough to experience it, long-term unemployment – now, as in the 1930s – is a tragedy. And, for society as a whole, there is the danger that the productive capacity of a significant portion of the labour force will be impaired.

Political union means transferring the prerogatives of national legislatures to the European parliament, which would then decide how to structure Europe’s fiscal, banking, and monetary union.

The consequences of a collapse would not be pretty. Whichever country precipitated it – Germany by threatening to abandon the euro, or Greece or Spain by actually doing so – would trigger economic chaos and incur its neighbours’ wrath.

Southern Europe has not done enough to enhance its competitiveness, while northern Europe has not done enough to boost demand. Debt burdens remain crushing, and Europe’s economy remains unable to grow.

The 1992 crisis proved that the existing system was unstable. Not moving forward to the euro would have set up Europe for even more disruptive crises.

While holding the eurozone together will be costly and difficult and painful for the politicians, breaking it up will be even more costly and more difficult.

As for the single market, the E.U.’s landmark achievement, there is no question that a euro zone breakup would severely disrupt its operation in the short run.

More than the Big Mac, Coca Cola, or Levi’s 501 jeans, the dollar is surely the United States’ signature export.

If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division, it would be better to be without it… Any religion which is not a cause of love and unity is no religion.

If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division it were better to be without it.

This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight.

The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what i dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts.

Work divided is in that manner shortened.

I’ll tell you what I miss most. What I would love to do, more than anything, is just anthologies. With an anthology, you can tell any story and be in every division of television. We don’t have any anthologies anymore, do we?

Just to clarify the division of labor on the show, I write the show and Alan [Poul] does everything else.

Priests might divide the world into good and bad. In battle there was strong and weak and nothing else.