Why Germany Has Zero Desire To Fix Anything In Europe

Germany has been the staunch opponent of some of the most promising ideas to end the eurozone crisis—common euro area bonds, enlarging the mandate of the European Central Bank, and drastically increasing the size of the European bailout fund.

Will we be all right in the end?

David Runciman writes about the current European crisis.

U.N. to Create Gross National Happiness?

Should happiness figure in a nation’s bottom line? And should the concept of Gross National Product be replaced by Gross National Happiness?

10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia.

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. 

What Europe loses if Greece is forced out

Germany should look to its past and ensure that Greece does not face a humiliating exit from the eurozone.

Why the Early U.S. Didn’t Go the Way of the Euro

We usually don’t think of the U.S. as a monetary union, but early in its history it essentially was. Unlike the crisis-wracked euro zone, the dollar zone survived its first few decades without a major crisis, providing the fragile young republic with a period of relative stability during which it began to congeal culturally, economically, politically and militarily.

2021: The New Europe

Welcome to Europe, 2021. Ten years have elapsed since the great crisis of 2010-11, which claimed the scalps of no fewer than 10 governments, including Spain and France. Some things have stayed the same, but a lot has changed.

Is this really the end?

EVEN as the euro zone hurtles towards a crash, most people are assuming that, in the end, European leaders will do whatever it takes to save the single currency. That is because the consequences of the euro’s destruction are so catastrophic that no sensible policymaker could stand by and let it happen.

Iceland and Ireland Models Help to Guide Greece’s Path

Opinion has polarized on what the best path is for Greece to take as it struggles out of its debt burden. European politicians are pressing for the country to follow Ireland’s example of austerity and debt repayment. But Keynesian economists, led by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, argue that austerity merely paves the way to semi-permanent depression.

Europe’s debt crisis: Five ways it’s been put to good use

Europe’s debt crisis has roiled financial markets and populations. But beyond nationwide strikes and gyrating markets, Europe has put its crisis to good use. Here are five trends that will ultimately strengthen the European Union and the euro currency.

Twenty Years After Independence, Russia Is in No Mood to Party.

Alexander Smirnov has never gotten over the euphoria of August 1991. He was a college student in Leningrad at the time, lanky and pale with Coke-bottle glasses, and on the morning of Aug. 20, 1991, he walked out onto the central square of the city to find a sea of people taking part in one of the largest demonstrations Russia had ever seen. The day before, a military coup had begun.

How cities, and governments, fall.

With Libya on the brink of deposing Gaddafi, a look at the unpredictable final moments of other regimes. When armies close in on a capital city in which a beleaguered regime is trying to hold out, the only thing that is predictable is that there will be surprises. Events move faster than expected, or they move more slowly. The regime going down may have rather more life left in it than expected, or it may put up far less resistance than was thought likely.The least likely outcome is a street-by-street fight through the city – usually there is either a collapse of will by the defenders or a final political fix, which gives some of them a way out. A few examples from recent history: