Pedestrians Beware!
Everyone interested in Vienna should stroll along Fleischmarkt and Griechengasse; rarely is so much history concentrated into just 400 metres. From the Babenbergs to Billy Wilder this short walk takes a long view into the city’s colourful past. Kornhäusel and coffee Fleischmarkt is an ancient street first documented in 1220. The name recalls the […]
A Weaker Euro for A Stronger Europe
What can be done to help the “crisis economies” of southern Europe reduce their external deficits? The debate is often presented as a conflict between the deficit-burdened PIIGS – Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain – and the eurozone’s current-account-surplus countries, particularly Germany. But a new and more important imbalance has emerged in recent years: […]
Germany most influential
Germany is viewed as the country with the “most positive influence” in the world, according to the BBC’s annual Country Ratings Poll. Interviewing 26,000 people from 25 countries by phone or face-to-face between December 2012 and April 2013, subjects were asked by GlobeScan/PIPA (Program on International Policy Attitudes) to rate 16 countries and the European […]
Sick of Austerity: The Crisis in EU Health Care
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, healing the sick economy quickly took over public policy discussions in Europe. At first, it seemed the continent might get by with only a light case and avoid the contagion of bad debt that was sweeping the U.S. Modest stimulus measures combined with existing social insurance to […]
Promising Gas Fields In Cyprus
Since the discovery of gas fields some 180 km offshore south of Cyprus in late 2011, the country has been keen to talk up its potential as a future eastern Mediterranean energy hub. For Europe, this and later finds add weight to the theory that the eastern Mediterranean could hold the key to European energy […]
Greek Immigration
After 14 consecutive years of economic growth, Greece went into recession in 2008. Now Greece faces its fifth straight year of recession with more than one in five workers unemployed. For 15 to 24-year-olds, youth unemployment is sitting at a frightening 52.7%. Even more worrisome, is the resultant outward-bound flow of Greeks in search of […]
Reinventing the European Dream
The euro crisis and the British Queen Elizabeth’s recent Jubilee seem to have nothing in common. In fact, together they impart an important lesson: the power of a positive narrative – and the impossibility of winning without one. Commenting on the Jubilee’s river pageant and horse parade, historian Simon Schama talked to the BBC about […]
Greek Youth Uncertain
The crisis in Greece is usually described in economic terms – as a matter of national debt and a budget deficit. But fiscal issues derive in part from more fundamental, historical problems in Greek society – a malfunctioning educational system and widespread corruption. These same problems are the ongoing cause of an ever increasing “brain […]
Should Germany Exit the Euro?
Last summer, financier George Soros urged Germany to agree to the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, calling on the country to “lead or leave.” Now he says that Germany should exit the euro if it continues to block the introduction of eurobonds. Soros is playing with fire. Leaving the eurozone is precisely what the […]
CommentaryMay 11, 2013Comments Off on Should Germany Exit the Euro?Read More