German Finanzminister Peer Steinbrück is interviewed in the recent Newsweek issue, and he doesn’t sound too happy:
Doesn’t an unprecedented crisis call for unprecedented measures?
“It’s the yearning for the Great Rescue Plan. It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist! Dealing with an unprecedented crisis is a puzzle, a trial-and-error.”
As we’ve been wondering what to do with our political interest now that THE election is over, here is a suggestion: Why not take part in politics ourselves?
Government officials today announced the highest unemployment rate, 6.5 percent, the country has seen since 1994. October thus marked the tenth consecutive month of decline. President-elect Barack Obama is facing what might well be the greatest challenge of his presidency – while scrambling to put together a team that will calm the markets.
One indicator for the influence of a nation in the world is the number of people willing to devote their academic career to the studies of said nation. According to this measure, the future isn’t looking very bright for the United States, if you follow this article in Time magazine. Applications for American Studies have significantly dropped in Great Britain in the last years, even though regional studies are still in fashion.
source: UCASGrand seigneur of the intellectual left in the US, Noam Chomsky has given the Spiegel an interview. He makes it pretty clear that Europeans shouldn’t hope for much from a possible President Obama.
SPIEGEL: “Change” is the slogan of this year’s presidential election. Do you see any chance for an immediate, tangible change in the United States? Or, to use use Obama’s battle cry: Are you “fired up”?
Chomsky: Not in the least. The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.
SPIEGEL: But he does say things that Europe has long been waiting for. He talks about the trans-Atlantic partnership, the priority of diplomacy and the reconciling of American society.
Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who cares about that? This whole election campaign deals with soaring rhetoric, hope, change, all sorts of things, but not with issues.
He has more to say about the state of American democracy and the 2008 elections. Chomsky touches upon the role religion plays for campaign managers, the narrow spectre of choices voters are given and McCain’s honest suggestion that this election really is about personality and not issues, as the Obama campaign claims. The full interview is here.
While the public in the US debates an alleged ‘love affair‘ of the mainstream media with the Democratic presidential hopeful, there is absolutely not the slightest doubt about the big crush the German press and public alike have on Obama. The Germans are pretty much a fourteen-year old teenager right now, minus the pimples, but with all the obsessions a young and unexperienced heart can develop when it is captivated by a charming heartthrob for the first time.
In a little more than 13 hours, U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama will stand in the golden hue of Victoria, at the foot of Prussian greatness, walking in the footsteps of American greats before him.
Weather: solid 83° Fahrenheit. Crowd: Tempelhof-groupies and EasyJet-set. Food: German, served with Stars & Stripes. Welcome to Amerikafest 2008.
In Germany and many other European countries, these past weeks have been spent in a state of emergency, with all social activities focused on one thing: Soccer! Find out why the American Embassy is giving out travel warnings after the jump.
Something about the current campaign is quite surprising for Germans, apart from the fact that millions are spend just to determine the final candidates. It’s the notion that many people and institutions of the public life explicitly take sides in this hard fought campaign. But isn’t that what we should expect from them? [Read more]
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