Atlantic Community:Global Must Read Article "Europe's Leadership Deficit"

Editorial, New York Times | December 10, 2010

The scale and urgency of Europe's financial crisis is not being confronted, or even acknowledged by its leaders. ++ "Europe needs to move forward to a sustainable euro, not back to the days of competing currencies". ++ For that to happen, it needs an intervention fund big enough to face down the markets. ++ Yet, Angela Merkel has been bowing to domestic opinion polls, blocking such a move and EU chiefs have been indecisive. ++ A plan to restructure debt and mitigate austerity measures exists, but there is no EU leader to implement it.

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Sun, Dec 19th 2010, 17:16

Florian Nikolai Yves Kurzmann, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Bronze Contributor (14)

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This is not a European financial crisis, rather an issue within the Eurozone. Germany, for example, is booming, with soaring exports, due to the weakness of the Euro and now; with a rejuvinated domestic consumer market and investments from businesses.

No question, the Eurozone needs reform. However, the German government is not strong enough to do it all by itself, not only because it is in a popularity crisis (losing states like Lower Saxony and miserable popularity rankings in opinion polls), leadership crisis (with many high ranking members resigning) and partner crisis (with the FDP running from one messy situation into the other and the CSU with a spying and banking scandal) and has lost the majority in the Bundesrat. In my point of view, the CDU is trying to keep it together domestically, in order to have a chance to regain and ultimately stay in power with the Green Party, on a state and later central level.

The European Union, whatsoever, is a political union anyway, based on mutual duties and privileges. A huge financial fund might slighten the concerns of the markets on the short term, but in order to fix the problem, a more structural approach is needed.

This fix must include a global approach, which prevents investors from speculating market segments or countries and currencies into crises. This does not mean that speculating needs to be prohibited, but can be done via investor education, investor ethics and a well organised, open and in-abusive global market as well as politics with a high level of involvement and transparency.