Word: belgians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Fiat or Citroën? Close up, some of the economic obstacles, too, become brutally visible. Cabled TIME'S Paris Bureau Chief André Laguerre last week: "It is only when the nations really start to talk about abolishing economic frontiers that the Belgian brewers think about all the beer that the Dutch can make. Or the watchmakers of Grenoble begin to agonize at the thought of competing with the Swiss. Or the owners and workers of Italy's Fiat auto plants point trembling fingers at the Renault and Citroën production in France. Or the French...
...bears a startling resemblance to Winston Churchill; in the whole grey and sagging circle of European leaders, he is one of the few men with a spark of Churchillian fire. With one hand thrust truculently into his trouser pocket, he uses the other to tick off the reasons for Belgian prosperity...
...thing, Belgium suffered relatively little damage during the Nazi occupation. The Belgian Congo had remained untouched, as had the country's foreign financial assets. Belgian industry kept working (on German orders) throughout the war. The country was quickly liberated, and its industry went to work for the Allies. All that was luck. But there was more to it. "Good sense," says Spaak, "knows how to make use of good luck...
...full shelves at full speed. Belgium used its dollar credits to buy food, clothing, alarm clocks and everything else consumers needed most-instead of spending it on heavy reconstruction. The common-sense reason: you could ask workers to work hard if they could buy something with their wages. Belgian workers, who had plenty to buy with their wages, did work hard. Belgian industries, which had reasonable profits to make, got down to the job as though their lives depended on it (as indeed they...
This spring, the Belgian franc is (after the Swiss franc and the Portuguese escudo) Europe's hardest currency. Belgians had their worries, but they were better off than any other European people touched by the war. They had cake in the cupboard as well as hope in the future...