Can Germany lead the European Union out of the economic crisis? The British historian Timothy Garton Ash writes in this interesting article that this is the ‘German question’of our time:

“There is a new German question. It is this: Can Europe’s most powerful country lead the way in building both a sustainable, internationally competitive eurozone and a strong, internationally credible European Union? Germany’s difficulties in responding convincingly to this challenge are partly the result of earlier German questions and the solutions found to them. Yesterday’s answers have sown the seeds of today’s question…” Link to the acrticle

 

Volgens de Amerikaanse econoom en Nobelprijswinnaar Paul Krugman is hier alle reden toe. ‘Austerity’ zou zijn gebaseerd op een rekenfout:

“In normal times, an arithmetic mistake in an economics paper would be a complete nonevent as far as the wider world was concerned. But in April 2013, the discovery of such a mistake—actually, a coding error in a spreadsheet, coupled with several other flaws in the analysis—not only became the talk of the economics profession, but made headlines. Looking back, we might even conclude that it changed the course of policy…” Lees verder

 

Volgens dit artikel op Project Syndicate wel, en dit dankzij de ‘schaliegasrevolutie’. Hoogleraar Internationale Betrekkingen Anne-Marie Slaughter voorziet in dit artikel zelfs een komende ‘Atlantische Eeuw’, dankzij deze opmerkelijke wending op energiegebied.:

“The United States is rising; Europe is stabilizing; and both are moving closer together. That was the principal message earlier this month at the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC),… The participants come primarily from Europe and the US; indeed, when the conference began in 1963, it was focused entirely on NATO members. This year, however, senior government officials from Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Singapore, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia also joined, an important sign of the times…” Lees verder

 

De voormalige Britse premier Tony Blair waarschuwt tegen een ‘Brexit’. De voorstanders van een Brits uittreden uit de EU zouden volgens hem slechts kijken naar de korte termijn. Blair ontkent de ‘design flaws’ in de EU niet, maar stelt dat op de langere termijn een sterke EU enorme voordelen voor het Verenigd Koninkrijk zou opleveren in een snel veranderende wereld:

“Power is shifting from West to East. China has a population that is three times larger than that of the EU and an economy that will eventually be the world’s largest. India has more than a billion people. Indonesia’s population is three times that of the largest European country, and a host of countries – including Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Egypt – have more people today than any EU member state. CommentsThis is crucial, because, as technology and capital become globally mobile, a realignment of GDP and population will occur: the larger a country’s population, the bigger its economy….” 

Blair ziet een pro-Europese houding dan ook niet als idealisme, maar als ‘Brutal realpolitik’ en als bittere noodzaak voor alle Europese landen, inclusief dat van hemzelf:

“The case for the EU today is that member countries, including Britain, need its heft in order to leverage power in economics, trade, defense, and foreign policy, as well as to address global challenges like climate change. The EU gives Britain a weight collectively that it lacks on its own…” Lees verder