Posts Tagged ‘Germany’

Could the German economic model be Ed Miliband’s ‘big idea’?

by Mark Seddon.

David Cameron was recently filmed lecturing a group of manufacturing workers with the inimical advice that ‘frankly we have to be more Germanic in our work practices’. That was pretty rich coming from an old Etonian who, like George Osborne, has never had a proper job in his life. But it set me thinking – […]

Is there a future for the German Left?

by Tom Gill.

Die Linke’s Congress last weekend was an important one. It is election year, with Federal polls due in the autumn. And it has been facing pressure over its position on Europe, with a minority challenging the party’s strong support for the single currency. A six-year old fusion of eastern and western German radicals, Die Linke, […]

Time to break up the Euro

by Oskar Lafontaine.

The European policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming increasingly under pressure. Not only European Commission President Manuel Barroso, but also Enrico Letta, recently asked by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to form the new governnnent, have criticized her austerity policies, which have been dominant in Europe and are leading to disaster. Europe’s leaders have long been at […]

Germany’s recovery is faltering

by Michael Burke.

Germany is widely regarded as the motor of the European economy. GDP grew by just 0.3% in the second quarter of 2012 and is barely 1% higher than a year ago. The German statistical agency Destasis speak of a continuing export-led recovery. But that is not strictly correct. German exports are rising. But because imports are rising […]

Merkel isolated as preacher of reactionary austerity

by Michael Meacher.

It is almost incredible that faced with the very real likelihood of a slide into world slump, as Obama is now warning, Merkel continues to parrot the reactionary monetarist mantra that “there can be no growth through borrowing”. There can certainly be no growth through prolonged austerity, though she didn’t admit that.

Is this the end of the European project: German hegemony in an age of austerity?

by Jon Lansman.

The European project began at the end of the World’s most devastating war because Germany (with the support of France) wanted to put its past behind it. Now an age of austerity is being inscribed into the foundation of a European super-state because Germany (with the support of France) wishes to put its future first. Fiscal […]

Standard & Poor’s is right, ‘austerity’ has no economic clothes

by Ann Pettifor.

So European politicians want to shoot the messengers? Sure, ratings agencies haven’t always been reliable, decent or honest. And sure, like Eurozone politicians Standard & Poor is just following events, not shaping them. But on this occasion S&P’s analysis, if not their solution, is right. Credit Crunch 2.0 is fast accelerating and squeezing life out of […]

Not much grand about this EU bargain

by Michael Meacher.

The praeternatural calm that has descended on the financial markets after Merkel-Sarkozy declared a ‘comprehensive’ bargain on Monday is unlikely to survive the Friday summit as the details sink in about what is involved, and even more about what is left out. Meanwhile back in Britain there is sound and fury from the Tory Right […]

Merkel hoist on her own petard

by Michael Meacher.

It must surely be one of the great ironies of the Euro sovereign impasse that Germany is now the biggest obstacle blocking the solution it most craves. As it becomes increasingly demanded within the Eurozone that the obvious solution to continuing bond market turbulence is that the European Central Bank (ECB) should take on the […]

EU: out of danger zone, still in intensive care

by Michael Meacher.

Some of the essential urgent components have now been put in place at last night’s Brussels summit, so that the Eurozone is safe for at least a few months ahead. But this was dealing with the immediate symptoms. The underlying structural flaws remain. The main one is that the Eurozone was always built on the […]

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