Am I giving Schröder too much credit?
The reelected German SPD-led government is having a hard time these days. An opposition spokesperson yesterday stated that it was now offically allowed to call Hans Eichel, the finance minister, a liar (for he said he did not know about the looming deficit before the election) and it will be next to impossible to find [...]
read onBye, bye, Neuer Markt
Deutsche Boerse, the main German stock market operator today announced that the Neuer Markt (new market) would be dumped by the end of the year. It’s a widely welcomed and probably useful decision to get rid of a market and respective index that has plunged for 2 1/2 years in a row. Fair enough, what [...]
read onA deeper rift? Some context…
Firstly, a noteworthy article by Robert Kagan concerning the fundamental policy-style differences between Europe and the US, published in May in the Washington Post. Secondly, The Economist’s analysis of these differences. Thirdly, a paper called “Mutual Perceptions” by Peter Rudolf of the German Institute for Foreign and Strategic Policy (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin), [...]
read onToo much water. And Moral Hazard.
Faced with the destruction of the floods currently covering a good part of East Germany and the Czech Republic, more than 4m victims will only be able to deplore their impotence with regard to the destructive potence of nature and to feel the anxiety of not knowing how to go on with their lives. It [...]
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