Is significantly greater integration the surest way to prevent both the euro and even the entire European Union from blowing apart? Or is EU federation–and the basic powers national governments now wield being weakened in the process–exactly the kind of radical fusion certain to send countries jealous of their sovereignty fleeing …
Angela Merkel
Europe’s Debt Tragicomedy: Horror Show Turns Into Shambolic Farce
There are occasions when even the scariest of movies will push the atmosphere of dread, danger, and doom a bit too far, and leave the scenario of improbable horror and panic feeling just stupid. That moment has arrived in Nightmare On Euro Street, as people who watched Europe’s escalating crisis through their fingers in terror begin …
Greek Referendum Threatens EU Debt Accord Ahead Of Crucial G20 Summit
As predicted, the relief and relative calm produced by the Oct. 27 agreement between European Union leaders battling the tightening euro zone debt crisis didn’t last long. Markets just aren’t ready to do with the fruits of optimism when there’s still so much to be made from low-hanging pessimism. Less expected, however, were …
Vladimir Putin: A Candidate for China’s Version of the Nobel Peace Prize
Last year, a day before the imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia in Norway, a group of Chinese scholars with ties to the Chinese Culture Ministry announced the victor in the inaugural Confucius Peace Prize. According to the 100,000-yuan (around $16,130 at today’s exchange rate) …
Euro-Rage: The President of the European Central Bank Loses His Cool and Parliamentarians Bicker
There are several reasons one might have chosen to attend the Sept. 8 press conference at the Frankfurt headquarters of the European Central Bank: to find out what the ECB had decided on interest rates (the bank held its benchmark interest rate at 1.5%) or how it had revised its growth forecasts (down to 1.6% from 1.9% in 2011 and …
Looming End of Gaddafi Regime Brings New Challenges
If the dramatic advances in recent days that have taken opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi toward — then into — Tripoli have thus far elicited only the most careful responses from tight-lipped Western leaders, there’s a good chance those officials are showing more emotion over the conflict, which is apparently nearing …
How European Leaders Are in the Same Boat as Obama When it Comes to Debt
A few of you, or at least your 401(k)s, may have noticed that financial markets plummeted again on Thursday. European markets closed at or near two-year lows across the board and the Dow closed down more than 400 points.
Asian markets Friday morning opened in the tank: the Nikkei index tumbling more than 2.5%, Sydney down 3.5%, …
The Merkel-Sarkozy Summit: Fiddling While Europe Burns
Politicians are notorious cynics, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy may be in a league of his own when it comes to exploiting collective crises in the hopes of creating personal gain. That is precisely what he was up to Tuesday during his joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he sought extend a …
The Merkel-Sarkozy Summit: A Minimalist Affair
It says a lot about the dramatic crisis facing the euro zone when the leaders of its two biggest economies go into a highly scrutinized summit amid promises, assurances, and even a form of hype stressing that nothing much will come from it. But that’s precisely the buzz surrounding this afternoon’s Paris meeting between German …
London Rioters Vs. Stock Market Traders: Who’s More Destructive?
Spreading chaos stokes rising fear. People rush to secure or otherwise protect valuables suddenly exposed to threat. Every 24 hours or so, mobs of faceless people converge anew to form an unpredictable, menacingly amorphous force whose destructive power strikes terror throughout society. Distraught citizens look on at the frenzy with the …
Angela Merkel Backs a European for the IMF Job. But Which European Can She Have in Mind?
This morning Angela Merkel made clear that she wishes to see a European replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the helm of the IMF. “It is of course of great importance that we find a quick solution,” she added.
The German Chancellor carefully avoided any hints as to which of the various Europeans mooted for the IMF candidacy might receive …
Washington Seizes Up and Suddenly Coalitions Don’t Look So Bad
On May 5, Britons are invited to vote in a referendum about voting. They will decide whether to abandon the U.K.’s current first-past-the-post elections (FPTP) in favor of an Alternative Vote (AV) system, which isn’t really much different from FPTP except that voters rank candidates in order of preference, and as candidates are …
What’s Up, Doc? Germany’s Defense Minister Resigns
Can Germany’s teflon Defense Minister survive plagiarism accusations? That was the question posed in this piece by William Boston, published just yesterday and explaining how the popular, plausible, ultra-posh Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, until recently tipped as a possible successor to Angela Merkel, came to be in such a pickle. Well, we …