The Great Debate UK
Europe votes conservative in crisis
– Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
Europe’s voters trust conservatives more than the left to handle the most severe financial and economic crisis since World War Two.
That was the key message of European Parliament elections that produced strong results for incumbent conservatives in Germany, France, Italy and Poland, but heavy defeats for governing socialists in Britain, Spain and Hungary.
The vote may ease political pressure for big government spending programmes to revive the economy, but it is unlikely to slow the drive for tighter financial regulation, which the next European Union legislature is set to make a key cause.
D-Day’s lasting legacy
- Nick Hewitt is a historian in the Department of Research and Information at the Imperial War Museum in London. He studied history at Lancaster University and War Studies at King’s College, University of London, where he specialised in naval history. He joined the Imperial War Museum in 1995. The opinions expresed are his own.-
“D-Day at last! Invasion! Hurrah! God save the King!” wrote a Cheshire schoolgirl on the evening of 6 June 1944. For her, news of the successful D-Day landings clearly meant a great deal. But looking back after sixty-five years, what was the historical significance of D-Day?
Short-time work cushions Europe in crisis
– Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. –
Unlike the 1930s, there are no hunger marches or tent cities of the homeless and jobless in Europe’s biggest economic slump since the Great Depression.
from The Great Debate:
Fed sets out exit strategy
-- John Kemp is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own --
Intense criticism of the Fed's role in the financial rescue program and the decision to triple its balance sheet, including monetizing a portion of the Treasury's debt, has forced the central bank to issue an unusual defense of its actions (http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20090323b.htm).
It attempts to placate critics by acknowledging the real risk of inflation, and marks the Fed's first attempt to set out an "exit strategy" for ending quantitative easing and other credit programs once the crisis is safely passed.
