LETTER FROM EUROPE: Locust Land
Gedmin, Jeffrey
LETTER FROM EUROPE JEFFREY GEDMIN Locust Land ANGELA MERKEL FINALLY MADE IT. Kind of. It took weeks to sort out the election results. Not because of hanging chads, but because of the vagaries...
...ITHINK THERE ARE TWO credible theories about the Germans today...
...Her economics minister is Edmund Stoiber, a Merkel rival from the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the CSU...
...Despite the horrible mess at the outset, many Americans saw America at its best in the way it responded—with churches, NGOs, and the private sector leading the way...
...Most Germans I know, though, yearn to have the old West German economy back: steady growth, low levels of unemployment, and a strong and generous safety net...
...Our donors come from all walks of life and are leaving charitable gifts in their wills...
...Naïve me, I gave her a pink slip...
...In doing so, they are making a tremendous difference to the world today and the one they will leave behind...
...Congratulations, Chancellor Merkel...
...All I can say is, poor Angela Merkel...
...A common view here was that Girl Scouts and grandmothers were forced to help out after Katrina because the U.S...
...You can help The American Spectator by including the following in your will: I give, devise, and bequeath $ to The American Spectator Foundation (IRS Tax ID #237002632), presently located at 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901, Arlington, Virginia 22209 for the purposes of publishing The American Spectator...
...Not because of hanging chads, but because of the vagaries of Germany's coalition politics...
...Jeffrey Gedmin is director of the Aspen Institute Berlin...
...But by no means has the old Schroder government been put out of its misery...
...They say this as if they actually believe it...
...I actually believe Merkel wanted to bring Germany into the 21st century...
...This was all before the costs of unification, of course, and before the pressures of globalization...
...It seems that she had decided to stay...
...LETTER FROM EUROPE JEFFREY GEDIV1 IN Locust Land NGELA MERKEL FINALLY MADE IT...
...Because the Foundation is a non-profit organization, bequests are free of estate and inheritance tax and can reduce the amount of your estate which will be taxed by the government...
...Include The American Spectator in your will...
...Maybe vice versa...
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...Imagine George W Bush with Leon Panetta as his foreign minister and Howard Dean as a key member of his economic team and you can imagine Merkel's predicament...
...Last but not least there is Franz Josef Jung from the CDU...
...He told interviewers after the elections that Merkel's campaign had pursued the wrong priorities...
...It is hard to fathom what they have become used to...
...I don't think Lady T. could pull this one off...
...The new defense minister has absolutely zero experience in foreign policy and security matters...
...After nearly four years in Berlin I could fill pages...
...They get their higher taxes and higher unemployment-11 percent nationally—in return for gobs of "social justice," as many people keep telling me...
...It took me about three minutes to discover a 20-something staffer with little to do other than drink coffee and read the papers...
...In the end, neither the conservative CDU nor Gerhard SchrOder's Social Democrats were able to build a majority with one of the smaller parties—which meant that the two big parties swallowed hard and joined together to form a government, a so-called Grand Coalition...
...Miinterfering, the chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD), is the one who last year referred to international investors as "Heuschrecken" (locusts), who fly in from abroad to victimize German workers...
...The capital has 19 percent unemployment...
...Steinmeyer was SchrOder's chief of staff for the past six years...
...BY MAKING A BEQUEST to The American Spectator Foundation, you will be giving one of the most powerful gifts one can give—helping to ensure the future of The American Spectator for the next generation of conservative readers...
...Maybe the culture feeds the system...
...I have to say my jaw dropped when I heard the narrator say in a slow, dramatic voice over shots of the Chicago stock market: "Every day here decisions are made about how much profit is made in the West, and how many go hungry in the Third World...
...The other theory, which always sounded silly but now looks increasingly compelling, is that the Germans are just "hard-wired to be Social Democratic," as a friend puts it...
...Sometimes they are wrapped in one...
...Then there are the chancellor's supposed allies...
...Guess what my attorney advised...
...Merkel's foreign minister is Frank Steinmeyer: able, respected, pragmatic—and a close confidant of the outgoing chancellor...
...To contemplate Frau Merkel's predicament, start with her cabinet...
...She gave me a letter from her attorney...
...This is the agony of victory, you might say...
...But as best I can tell, a steady stream of leftist drivel about economics is pumped into peoples' heads here at school, through the media, from the churches and trade unions, and 95 percent of the politicians, from left to right...
...Making a lasting and significant contribution to The American Spectator Foundation is not just for the wealthy...
...You meet more and more talented and ambitious young people in Berlin who reach the age of 30 without ever having held a full-time job...
...The details are as tedious as they are amusing and painful for Germany's new leader...
...At times it 54 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 2005/JANUARY 2006 JEFFREY GEDM N is hard to tell which is worse, the anti-Americanism one encounters here on a daily basis or the anti-capitalism...
...In fact, a new round of misery has just begun...
...This was evident even in the discussion of Hurricane Katrina...
...Okay, it is not about genes...
...Historian and commentator Michael Stiirmer says Germans have constructed a culture and elaborate system in which "inefficient insiders block talented and efficient outsiders...
...Members of Merkel's own party have already started to call for the CDU to become "more social...
...A German McCain...
...He does have one important qualification, though: he is an ally of Roland Koch, the CDU governor of the state of Hesse, who is desperate for Merkel's job...
...I saw a travel show on German television recently about Chicago...
...I always imagined my young staffer took a long vacation on Mykonos...
...The arguments in favor of a more open, deregulated, competitive economy are simply too persuasive...
...We highly recommend that you discuss with your lawyer how best to address your desires to provide for your loved ones and the causes you value...
...Merkel's labor minister is Franz Miinterfering, another close Schroder ally...
...This was back when the Federal Republic snuggled under the arm of American protection...
...The first—I used to support this theory and as best I can tell the Wall Street Journal editorial page still does—maintains that with strong and principled leadership Germans will awaken from their slumber and become a serious country again...
...Stoiber, who made disloyalty his trademark during the campaign, opposes many of the market reforms Merkel favors...
...I met Germans who missed the point entirely...
...He told reporters that Merkel's bolder proposals for economic reform had of course been abandoned;otherwise he would not be part of the team...
...IT IS INCREDIBLY HARD to find Germans who share American (let alone libertarian) views of government...
...You can also name the Foundation as a contingent beneficiary in the event somebody named in the will is no longer living...
...Everyone has become used to this, too...
...or I would have to offer her an obscene sum of money to leave...
...1 4(:, --?\„:THE AMERICAN SPI-ArrATOR FOUNDED 1967 DECEMBER 2005/JANUARY 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 55...
...Merkel's agriculture minister is Stoiber's CSU ally Horst Seehofer, who will defend (Bavarian) farm subsidies...
...government is so small and ineffective...
...So Germans cling to their strong state...
...It gets better...
...Merkel is chancellor...
...When I started at the Aspen Institute, I began with scarce funds and a bloated staff...
...I liked Seehofer's comment, before the new chancellor had even convened her first cabinet meeting...
...Those days are gone, but this does stop people from living in the past...
...some want to turn back the modest reforms of the Schroder years...
...Maybe today's Germany is just destined to muddle through...
...Get the incentives right, and the behavior will change...
Vol. 38 • December 2005 • No. 10
