The Great Debate UK
from Commentaries:
Germans vote for change; will they get it?
Germans have voted for change. A centre-right government with a clear parliamentary majority will replace the ungainly grand coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats that ran Europe's biggest economy for the last four years.
This should mean an end to "steady as she goes" lowest common denominator policies, and at least some reform of the country's tax and welfare system. The liberal Free Democrats, who recorded their best ever result with around 14.7 percent, will try to pull the new government towards tax cuts, health care reform, a reduction in welfare spending and a loosening of job protection in small business.
Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, a cautious centrist, made clear in her first post-election comments that she she would not allow a radical lurch to the right. She promised to be the "chancellor of all Germans" -- old and young, entrepreneurs and workers -- and said the conseravtives would be sufficiently dominant in the new coalition to prevail "in questions that affect social balance".
The new government faces tough economic challenges in what is bound to be a more polarised political atmosphere, with the Social Democrats in opposition. The economy is expected to contract by at least 5 percent this year, and export-led growth is likely to return only slowly. Unemployment is set to explode in the coming months as short-time work schemes run out. The budget deficit is set to top 6 percent of gross domestic product next year, more than twice the EU limit. So 2010 will be an extremely difficult year. But there are some problems that are even more urgent.
from Commentaries:
Ireland’s property bank stores up trouble
Most buyers are happy if their putative purchase gets cheaper. However, Dublin's government is watching the on-off liquidation of developer Liam Carroll's assets with trepidation.
Dublin has committed to acquiring property loans with a face value of some 90 billion euros from the country's beleaguered banks at a so-far unspecified discount to establish a "bad bank". The idea is that by removing such loans to the new National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the banks would be free to start lending again.
from For the Record:
Watching our language: Writing about the financial crisis
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.
The global financial crisis may have drained the coffers of investors, businesses and nations, but it’s making our language a bit richer as we discover, revive, coin and develop words and phrases to help make sense of it all.
