NYT Belittles European Leaders (Merkel & Balkenende)
Mort Zuckerman
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Subject: NYT Belittles European Leaders (Merkel & Balkenende)
Date: Mar 31, 2009 6:53 AM
Here is a headline from the NYTimes today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/world/europe/31europe.html?scp=3&sq=merkel&st=cse
Notice how fairified this story is, talking about
*personalities* and self-revealing the Times to be a
gossip-rag, just like the supermarket gossip weeklies.
What we want to know is what Merkel, et al, think is an *actionplan*
for the economies, not this total nonsense the Times reports. The
Times clearly insults our intelligence and says not a word about
Germany's real agenda as regards the BANKING CRISIS- which is to
"THROW OUT the current US Petrodollar, unregulated system," and
with which Russia and China AGREE!!!
And now here is the *real* Angela Merkel and what/how she
thinks:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,614251,00.html
OPINION
Values for a Sustainable World Economy
By Angela Merkel and Jan Peter Balkenende
The current global financial crisis embodies a chance for a new
economic order, argue German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime
Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. That idea should be the guiding
principle for the upcoming G-20 summit in London.
Crisis. Perhaps no word is used more often to describe the current
downturn of the global economy. The ancient Greeks used the word
"krisis" to express the idea of a key moment, a turning point enabling
people to take clear and unambiguous decisions. This implies that
every crisis embodies a chance to change things for the better. That
idea should guide us at the London summit on growth, jobs and
stability on April 2.
German chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime minister of the
Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende write about their hopes for the
London summit on April 2.
Zoom
REUTERS
German chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime minister of the
Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende write about their hopes for the
London summit on April 2.
The immediate challenges of the current financial and economic crisis
are apparent. People all over the world are deeply concerned about
their jobs, mortgage repayments and future pensions. However, there
are two reasons why this crisis could also prove to be a turning point
that enables us to make the global economic system more balanced and
fit for the future.
First, governments all over the world have clearly shown that they can
and will act decisively to stimulate global demand and to preserve the
stability of the financial sector. The latter aim is not for the sake
of bailing out bankers, but to protect the jobs and savings of their
citizens and to avoid businesses coming to a standstill. An immediate
meltdown of the financial system has been prevented and there is no
doubt that ensuring the stability of the financial infrastructure and
unlocking the credit flow remains a top priority.
Market Driven and Social
Second, the climate for international cooperation is more favorable
than ever before. A spirit of shared responsibility already prevailed
during the Washington summit last November. Everybody realizes that
fundamental changes are necessary. Never before did all the main
players in the world economy agree so rapidly on an elaborate agenda
for action.
This crisis shows that some fears about untamed globalization are not
unjustified. But it also proves that in today's world there is no
alternative to globalization as a motor for growth and employment,
thus fostering prosperity worldwide. So our goal must be a market
driven and social world economy that is balanced, equitable and
sustainable. In short: a system that generates not fear and
uncertainty but confidence and stability.
A Global Governance Gap
Apart from the discussion on how to bring our economies back onto a
robust growth path, the key challenge we face in London is to build a
new financial architecture that meets 21st century requirements. It is
clear that over the past few decades, as the financial system has
globalized at unprecedented speed, the various systems of rules and
supervision have not kept pace. This global governance gap must be
filled in order to restore confidence and to prevent a crisis like
this from happening again.
The credibility of the process hinges upon whether we deliver on our
Washington commitments -- e.g. that all financial markets, products
and participants must be subject to appropriate oversight or
regulation, without exception and regardless of their country of
domicile. This is especially true for those private pools of capital,
including hedge funds, that may present a systemic risk. Furthermore
we should tackle tax havens and put an end to a bonus culture that
leads to unacceptable risks.
The current crisis has revealed that the globalization process is not
sustainable if key market actors -- the most recent example being
major parts of the financial industry -- neglect fundamental
principles of sound economic behavior. In our view it is therefore
indispensable that market forces are not only checked through
regulations and oversight, but also by a robust global framework of
common values that sets clear limits to excessive and irresponsible
action.
This lies behind the idea of a Global Charter for Sustainable Economic
Activity, aimed at developing a single framework relying on the
unfolding of market forces but striving to ensure a stable, socially
balanced and sustainable development of the global economy.
The charter is meant to be a collection of overarching principles
linking economic liberty with accountability and responsibility as the
basic cornerstones of economic activity. These principles should be
drawn up collaboratively, taking benefit of existing concrete rules
representing international consensus, but also drawing lessons form
the current crisis. They would serve to guide policy makers in
designing and implementing the necessary new architecture in the areas
of economic, financial and social policy. We would propose that the
leaders endorse the charter approach at the London summit. Of course,
the project is in principle open to a broader group of countries as
well as international organizations.
Restore Confidence
The starting point of the charter is the common interest that
industrialized, emerging and developing economies have in sustainable
globalization. It is a forceful attempt to set the weights of market
forces and accompanying values, principles and rules into a new global
relationship that fits best the needs of people in the era of
globalization. Its ultimate goal is to restore confidence in the
global economy and make the world less vulnerable to crises.
We strongly believe that the London summit can be a milestone enabling
us to tackle the dangers and seize the opportunities this crisis
brings. The challenge is to use the tremendous potential of free world
trade in a responsible manner. This includes, for example, the speedy
conclusion of the Doha round of negotiations on trade liberalization
and the creation of opportunities for developing countries.
Moreover, we should use the present international spirit of
cooperation to shape developments that define the lives of future
generations all over the world. Pressing issues are the fight against
poverty and the promotion of the economic development in poorer
countries as well as the strengthening of internationally agreed
social standards. Our moral obligation to fight climate change and
develop renewable sources of energy also remains in place. Later this
year, at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, the world must deliver
proof of this. This is a field where responsibility and opportunity
meet, because creating jobs and greening the economy can go hand in
hand.
Fighting this crisis demands resolve and commitment. There is no easy
way out and it is clear that difficult times lie ahead of us. At the
same time it gives us the chance to get it right. Let's seize this
chance and make the London summit a success.
Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany. Jan Peter Balkenende is
the prime minister of the Netherlands.
====================================
March 31, 2009
Sarkozy and Merkel Try to Shape European Unity
By STEVEN ERLANGER and NICHOLAS KULISH
PARIS — They are an extremely odd couple — he is short and
hyperactive, she is dour and shy. He believes in the power of the
state and big interventions; she believes in a softer role for the
state, guiding and prodding the market. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela
Merkel don’t even get along very well, aides to both leaders say. He
has made fun of her accent in private meetings, the aides say, and she
says he is self-centered and impetuous.
But the French president and the German chancellor find themselves in
a forced marriage in these days of economic crisis. Responsible for
the two largest economies among nations that use the euro, known as
the euro zone, they are trying to shape European unity in the days
before the Group of 20 economic summit meeting this week.
They also are bearing the brunt of criticism, especially from the left
and from Washington, that they are not responding forcefully enough to
the recession and the collapse of world trade.
In general, when France and Germany agree, they bring the European
Union along, so the two leaders’ relationship is crucial in a period
of crisis. While they have produced very different national responses
to the economic downturn — with Mrs. Merkel authorizing a larger
stimulus package than France has — they have worked together to keep
fiscal discipline in the euro zone, and resist American calls for even
greater government spending.
They have found common cause as well in a call for much tougher global
regulation of financial markets, putting the blame for the crisis
directly on the “Anglo-Saxons” — the United States and Britain, whose
free-market practices, not widely copied in continental Europe, are
viewed by France and Germany as not sufficiently disciplined by the
state.
Recently, for example, they issued a joint letter to their European
Union colleagues to back “a new global financial architecture” that
would create transnational oversight and regulation, which Washington
opposes and London dislikes. They also called for a crackdown on
unregulated hedge funds and tax havens that have strong bank-secrecy
laws.
And both countries, Germany in particular, want to be sure that they
have enough money to come to the aid, if necessary, of weaker, less
disciplined euro economies, like those of Spain, Greece, Ireland and
Portugal, while promoting a bigger International Monetary Fund to deal
with troubled countries outside the euro zone, like Romania, Hungary
and the Baltic states.
“The financial and economic crisis has really helped bring their
positions closer together,” said Claire Demesmay of the German Council
on Foreign Relations. “They see that a coordination of political
measures within the E.U. and between E.U. countries is necessary.”
Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel try each other’s nerves, however. Last
month in Berlin, the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported, Mr.
Sarkozy delayed a news conference of European heads of state by
refusing to follow the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, in the
speaking order, even though the Czech Republic holds the revolving
presidency of the European Union. The no-nonsense Mrs. Merkel, who as
host would speak first, quietly ceded her position to the Czech.
Even for NATO’s coming 60th anniversary summit meeting, which France
and Germany will host, Mr. Sarkozy insisted that he sit next to the
NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, whenever the cameras
were on, instead of the traditional practice of sitting in
alphabetical order by country, according to Spiegel Online. As a
compromise, Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel will flank the secretary
general in front of the cameras, but otherwise sit in their normal
seats.
“Merkel is not looking for headlines — she is more of a long-distance
runner,” said Wolfgang Nowak, who runs Deutsche Bank’s International
Forum. “There is still that old French feeling that France should be
the leader and Germany the banker, but this year we have to have a new
foundation for this relationship.”
Still, both Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel were taken off guard by the
crisis, said Daniel Cohen, a professor of economics at the École
Normale Supérieure. And neither may be taking it seriously enough, he
said. “When Sarkozy was chairing the European Union, Germany was then
very reluctant to embark on a package to reflate the economy,” he
said. “Merkel realized only later the extent that Germany was hit by
the crisis.”
As for Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Cohen said, “he was elected on a program, very
liberal by French standards, to lower taxes, cut state jobs and create
new incentives to work more — the crisis has made all these measures
totally inadequate and obsolete.”
In their differing responses, Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy are also
reflecting different ideologies, differently structured economies and
different political pressures.
At the beginning of the crisis, Mr. Sarkozy called for a Europewide
package to help banks and for a kind of “European financial
government.” Mrs. Merkel scorned both ideas, believing that German
banks were stable. She was forced to act later, but then got hit with
the second wave of the crisis — the collapse of global trade, which
hit the export-driven German economy very hard, just as it hit the
Japanese and Chinese.
Mr. Sarkozy moved quickly to create a fund for French banks to ensure
that they had enough capital and to induce new lending, talked of
state intervention and fiercely criticized unbridled capitalism. He
praised “the return of the state,” but he has been more cautious about
government spending.
While he announced a $34 billion stimulus program over two years, only
$17 billion represented new spending and about $8 billion of it was
aimed at the French car industry. That created resentment by European
allies with their own flagging car industries, like Germany, and also
anger in some countries, since he called on French companies to bring
back jobs from their subsidiaries in lower-wage countries like the
Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. His protectionist instincts were
slapped down by the European Commission.
Mr. Sarkozy has insisted that he will not increase public spending
further, though he is promoting big government projects like
modernizing rail and transport lines. His aides are anxious about more
strikes and violence among workers and disaffected youth later in the
spring, and Mr. Sarkozy now says that he will respond quickly if
necessary.
But he is pressing ahead to cut taxes on the wealthy and to provide
more money to those already working, by encouraging overtime work
beyond the legally mandated 35-hour workweek. His problem — and one
cause for domestic anger — is that the policy works against the needs
of the crisis. More hours now for those in work mean fewer jobs for
those laid off.
As for fiscal stimulus to produce consumer demand, French consumer
spending is down only slightly. While its economy is contracting,
France, given the size of the government sector — more than 52 percent
of gross domestic product — is more insulated from global economic
swings than other nations are, especially given fierce worker
protections.
By comparison, Germany was slow to act, starting with a relatively
modest series of measures last fall worth about $42 billion. But Mrs.
Merkel’s government came up with an additional $65 billion in January,
with programs like school reconstruction and a 2,500-euro incentive to
trade in old cars and buy new ones. Her intent has been to protect
companies and workers by helping to subsidize pay, rather than dump
new cash on Germans who are more likely to save it than spend it.
Unlike Mr. Sarkozy, who has three more years to his term, Mrs. Merkel
finds herself in a difficult position, facing elections in September
with voters leery of fiscal profligacy. Her Christian Democrats have
been sinking in the polls, with the pro-business Free Democrats eating
away at their support.
Steven Erlanger reported from Paris, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.
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