Topic: Merkel flashes Europe

[charlesoakwood]

The article byline says, "François Hollande, has put the German chancellor on the defensive with his growth agenda." Silly liberals, they just don't understand.  Or maybe they're just insane, it's difficult to differentiate one from the other these days.

[blockquote]  (May 26, 2012) of DER SPIEGEL   

Under the plan [Merkel's], government-owned businesses are to be sold off, protections against wrongful dismissal relaxed and obstructive regulations for companies removed. There is also talk of special economic zones and privatization agencies based on the model of Germany's Treuhand trust, created at the time of reunification to sell off most of former East Germany's state-owned enterprises. In short, the Mediterranean region is to become more like Germany, but with better weather. [/blockquote]

On the other hand Hollande wants to lower the retirement age and raise taxes.  Watching this play will be interesting.

[Libertas]

Rock, meet hard place.

This will not end well.

(OK, that was too easy to predict!)

[Glock32]

The Germans are going to eventually tire of being the responsible ones. It's an Ant and Grasshopper situation for sure. Maybe at least part of Europe will wake up from this pipe dream (i.e. that you can work 35 hours a week, get 3 months paid vacation a year, be almost impossible to fire, and retire at 50) before it's too late. I don't want to see the entire continent handed over to musloid barbarians simply by virtue of its rightful owners having become decrepit, enfeebled, and unwilling to produce its own heirs.

[Libertas]

Germany could become the bogeyman for the have-not's if the whole EU experiment gets flushed...something that might cause Merkel to lose power potentially if German socialists gain momentum, but that wouldn't stop me from refusing to join the rush over the cliff...if Europe breaks up into smaller coalitions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier nations...perhaps that is what should happen.  Trying to federalize nations with a history of not seeing eye to eye on most things seemed doomed to failure.  What should rise out of that failure should be their goal now, preventing failure is like trying to stop the earth from rotating...it's just pointless in the extreme.

[Sectionhand]

Rather than Greece leaving the EU , the more logical exit would be by Germany simply out of frustration with the irresponsibility of the other members .

[Pandora]

Germany could become the bogeyman for the have-not's if the whole EU experiment gets flushed...something that might cause Merkel to lose power potentially if German socialists gain momentum, but that wouldn't stop me from refusing to join the rush over the cliff...if Europe breaks up into smaller coalitions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier nations...perhaps that is what should happen.  Trying to federalize nations with a history of not seeing eye to eye on most things seemed doomed to failure.  What should rise out of that failure should be their goal now, preventing failure is like trying to stop the earth from rotating...it's just pointless in the extreme.

IIRC, the purported goal of the EU was specifically to tie together economically those "with a history of not seeing eye to eye" as a war-avoidance tactic.  Doomed to failure, though; peoples of those countries are too different to homogenize, nevermind the impossibility of an planned economy centrally ruled and regulated by a handful of bureaucrats.

Should Germany turn its back on the whole foolish experiment, I'd cheer.  I'd also be shocked blue because seeing the normal and sensible done today is a rarity.

[Libertas]

Germany could become the bogeyman for the have-not's if the whole EU experiment gets flushed...something that might cause Merkel to lose power potentially if German socialists gain momentum, but that wouldn't stop me from refusing to join the rush over the cliff...if Europe breaks up into smaller coalitions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier nations...perhaps that is what should happen.  Trying to federalize nations with a history of not seeing eye to eye on most things seemed doomed to failure.  What should rise out of that failure should be their goal now, preventing failure is like trying to stop the earth from rotating...it's just pointless in the extreme.

IIRC, the purported goal of the EU was specifically to tie together economically those "with a history of not seeing eye to eye" as a war-avoidance tactic.  Doomed to failure, though; peoples of those countries are too different to homogenize, nevermind the impossibility of an planned economy centrally ruled and regulated by a handful of bureaucrats.

Should Germany turn its back on the whole foolish experiment, I'd cheer.  I'd also be shocked blue because seeing the normal and sensible done today is a rarity.

Yes, your recollection is correct and after closer economic ties were achieved then came closer political and military ties.  The latter was a bigger deal primarily because France had traditionally gone their own way after WWII, now it is the economic straining the political piece of the triad and if two legs fall the whole collapses rapidly.  I too would cheer if Germany waved good bye, but I doubt such clarity will be possible with so many throwing dirt up into the air.  If I had to bet I would bet on continued floundering until such point is reached that any decisions per se will be entirely driven by impersonal events, not rational minds.

[ToddF]

Germany's new president, Friedrich Ebert, has put the French chancellor on the defensive with his growth agenda.

Der Spiegel, March 14, 1923

[AlanS]

Rather than Greece leaving the EU , the more logical exit would be by Germany simply out of frustration with the irresponsibility of the other members .

I haven't figured out why this didn't happen YEARS ago. Germany would be sitting flush by now. Well, except for that little Muslim problem.

[charlesoakwood]

Yeah, the Muslims.

Muslim act out in Slovakia, nie
http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/3973/2/lipsic_multiculturalism_doesnt_work.html

“The concept that two totally different civilisations can live next to each other without any conflicts and problems has failed in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France, and simply everywhere they tried to put it into practice several dozens of years ago in good faith,” Lipšic said, as quoted by TASR. “That’s why I believe it’s good for legal migration to prefer persons that come from the same culture and civilisation.”

Muslim act out in Poland, nr.
http://www.planetaislam.com/poland/report.html

Muslim act out in the Czech Republic, ne
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/07/08/former-czech-pm-sued-over-statements-islam
"Former Czech PM sued over statements on Islam," from the Prague Monitor,

  "The enemy is the anti-civilisation spreading from North Africa to Indonesia. Two billion people live in it and it is financed partly from oil sales and partly from drug sales," Czech news servers quoted Zeman as saying about Islam at the recent conference.

    Zeman said Thursday Muslims believe in the Koran like Nazis believed in racial supremacy and anti-semitism and communists in class struggle and dictatorship of the proletariat.

***
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6942088/Cardinal-says-Christian-Europe-is-to-blame-for-Islamisation.html
Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the Archbishop of Prague, said Muslims were well placed to fill the spiritual void "created as Europeans systematically empty the Christian content of their lives".

It seems our Western European brothers could take a lesson from their Eastern cousins.

[Glock32]

Eastern Europe ultimately has a brighter future than Western Europe. Their allegedly primitive qualities (i.e. the importance of family and tradition) give them a better foundation for the future than the hedonistic West.

Clinton was dropping bombs on the wrong side in Yugoslavia. The Serbs were trying to push Islam out.

[charlesoakwood]

 

[Libertas]

"Clinton was dropping bombs on the wrong side in Yugoslavia. The Serbs were trying to push Islam out."

One could successfully argue that began a new chill with our relations with Russia, not that I am looking to be best buds with those bastards (I don't trust 'em to do what's right, naked self interest and generations of low self esteem drive their actions) but that and the flak over Chechnya (again, Muslims!) and Georgia pissed 'em off.  Now, they just seem to delight in pissing us off.