Nikita Khrushchev, the former First Secretary of the Soviet Union, once remarked, “Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin.” Given the EU’s current predicament, I find this statement prescient. But the people of Berlin could not care less about that predicament. In fact, most Berliners find Greece a bore and Portugal simply a destination for fast, easy women. So why am I so captivated by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s painful pandering and yet also sympathetic with Germany’s plight? Continue reading »
Euro crisis
Christine Lagarde: There’s No ‘I’ In Teamwork But There’s Something That Looks Like An ‘I’ In “WWIII”
By Bess Levin
“There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super- advanced economies that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding, but escalating at a point where everybody would actually have to focus on what it can do,” Lagarde said. If the international community doesn’t work together, “the risk from an economic point of view is that of retraction, rising protectionism, isolation,” Lagarde said. “This is exactly the description of what happened in the ‘30s and what followed is not something we are looking forward to.” [Bloomberg]
“I think that out of difficult times, opportunities present themselves,” Mr. Biden said today in Athens. “And with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, a year from now we will have not only weathered this crisis, but even be in a stronger position.” [WSJ]
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