The United States of America has long been the example to follow for the European Union. Sorry, the United States of Europe. Your lessons for Europe from America’s history are thus well taken (“One Nation Overdrawn,” December 17, 2011). Although America’s history stretches to more than two centuries, Europe’s two decades or so show perfectly well that the lessons are not yet clear to its leaders. As you argue, the missing fiscal union is much less of a problem than the poor performance in labor mobility. In America, someone who has grown up in New Orleans has no trouble going to school in Boston or finding a job in Seattle. Europe is far behind in this regard. Someone who has grown up in Budapest has hard time going to school in Barcelona or finding a job in Hamburg. In addition to linguistic differences, cumbersome labor laws are in the way, and especially when new members of the Union are concerned. Of the four freedoms of movement, capital and services are doing rather well, whereas goods are already moving much more sluggishly. Labor is moving hardly at all, at least by American standards. Assuming that the Union has a future, this is where much needs to be done. By comparison, the vaunted fiscal union is easy enough to engineer.