The bond-holders represented the last obstacle to the second bail-out of Greece's debt-shattered economy. They had to agree by 8 p.m. Athens time.  80 percent have, enough for the Greek bail-out to go forward.

From the moment the crisis went from smoldering to explosive, last summer this deal has been haggled over, delayed, brought the single currency to the brink of extinction and threatened to take the world economy through a worm hole into a new dimension - a very dark one.

A three-way deal between Greece, its EU partners and the private bond-holders often seemed as if it might be impossible to reach. This last piece of the puzzle was open to question even after Greece and the EU had reached agreement on their part.

The Forbes annual billionaire list may be no more than a conversation starter, but what it says about Europe is clear. This is not a place where industrialists or inventors, people who build traditional businesses, become super-rich.

Instead, it is the place where aggregators and creators of retail experiences prosper. Europe's two billionaires in the top five are France's Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods firm, LVMH, worth $41 billion, and Spain's Amancio Ortega owner of the global retail outlet Zara, worth $37.5 billion.

More from GlobalPost: EU austerity watch: Two test cases

The other Europeans in the top ten are Sweden's Stefan Persson, chairman of cheap chic clothing chain H & M, and Germany's Karl Albrecht, whose Aldi chain of discount supermarket operates on both sides of the Atlantic.

This isn't the first time the subject of religious slaughter of food among France's religious minorities has come up. But with a presidential election looming next month it was bound to re-surface.

Last month, Marine Le Pen, candidate of the far-right National Front made ritual slaughter for Halal meat an issue … and it found traction. Now Prime Minister Francois Fillon, a member of President Sarkozy's UMP party, is echoing the call.

In a different context yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, indulged in a bit cliche mongering, ""If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it?" he asked his audience at AIPAC in connection with Iran's nuclear program.

You could ask the same questions about the European Union - just substitute the phrase "United States of Europe" for duck and you'll get my point.

Less than two working days after EU leaders signed a new fiscal compact limiting annual budget deficits to 3.5 percent of GDP. Individual states are already squawking.