Word: derlying
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...Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition, was characterizing the E.U. as a "Stalinist European super state, the Soviet Union of the West." Meanwhile in Germany, the sputtering economic engine of Europe, the exigencies of an election campaign are re-intensifying the lively tradition of blaming Brussels. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, having quashed a European Commission warning letter over his government's mounting deficit, appears ready to wage his domestic campaign against Brussels - something his opposition rival Edmund Stoiber has been doing for years...
...stiffing of the Commission the only sin of the once so Europe-minded Germans. Indeed, Schröder has racked up quite a record in recent times. Take cars, something very dear to the European consumer. Competition Commissioner Mario Monti wants to break up the informal shelters that allow carmakers to charge different prices in different markets. But Schröder, eyeing the profits and employment rolls of VW, Daimler, Opel et al., doesn't like it. Liberalization of the energy market? No, says Berlin, we don't want a European regulatory commission that would set Europe-wide "tolls...
...moral of this tale is "neomercantilism," the protection of one's home market against competition from abroad. The Schröder government has become quite shameless in this game, using its muscle in European councils as if it were the direct descendant of Louis XIV and his protectionist Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
...goodies like the next soccer World Cup. He is in hock to the banks for about ?6 billion ($5.2 billion), and lots of loans are coming due these days. When Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-American ruler of a globe-spanning media empire, offered himself as a savior, Schröder sent out the signal: "No foreigners!" The word was spread that the Chancellor preferred a "national solution" - as he did in the case of John Malone, an American whose Liberty Media wanted to invest big time in the German cable industry but was frozen out on the argument that Liberty...
...this is also a sad tale for Europe. Facing more than 4 million unemployed, the Schröder government has evidently concluded that it can make electoral hay by keeping change and competition at bay. The Chancellor may also calculate that telling Brussels where to get off will garner him votes in September as well. It may or may not. Meanwhile, who is going to take care of Europe? For decades, Germany was the engine of integration. If that engine begins to stutter, neither France nor Britain is going to provide the push. In fact, they must be quite happy...