Podcasts today comes from a bar in Brussels, Lamor Subit,

and we are contemplating the European Union, the World Cup,

diffusion of Visigoths and Romans,

and trying to put some shape on the economic, social, cultural and political angst

that we see manifesting itself in elections all over European Union.

So that's it, it's the European Union

through the lens of

the bottom of a glass of shime.

To understand the economy,

you have to understand human nature.

This podcast is powered by ACAST.

How are you doing there? It is time for the podcast. And the podcast today is all going to be

about the future of Europe. Now, you know, we are doing our World Cup special. But one of the interesting

aspects that came up from Simon Cooper's discussion the other day was that ultimately the next

few World Cups will be about where the rising powers in football, but not just in football,

in geopolitics are, in the sense that up until

recently the World Cup was largely a European or what I would call a proto-European affair

if you describe the football playing countries of Latin America as being in effect part of

the European sphere of influence, the Argentinians,

the Brazilians, the Mexicans, the Colombians, kind of a proto-European civilization over there.

But as the world's axis shifts and it shifts towards Asia, each World Cup will probably be defined by the up and coming team.

Is it Korea? Is it Japan? Is it one of the African nations? Is it the Asian nations, or at least

...